Decades from now Cal State Northridge will look like an outlier. As the twenty-first century dawned and it became apparent that safe, renewable energy produced from sources other than fossil fuels would be critical to the survival of the planet, the administration at the school rose to the occasion.

Faced with a growing population and evolving energy needs, the school in suburban Los Angeles built the world’s largest on-campus fuel cell plant. With many choices available simply within fuel cell technology, the decision was made to utilize a Direct FuelCell system. Constructed in 2006, the 1 MW system is comprised of four 250 kW molten carbonate fuel cells. Energy Manager Bill Sullivan, who is charged with the day-to-day management of the plants says, “It made sense from an environmental and economic perspective.”

The Direct FuelCell operates in three major sections: the Fuel Cell Module (referred to by Sullivan as “The Stack”), the Mechanical Balance of Plant (MBOP) and the Electrical Balance of Plant (EBOP). The Stack is where the electro-chemical reaction takes place, where hydrogen begins the process of being turned into electricity.

According to Sullivan, The Stack is the biggest piece of maintenance in the entire operation. And the most expensive. It costs approximately $285,000 a year to service and requires replacing every five years.

Though the initial investment was significant at $5 million, the price tag was a fraction of what the cost would have been to install a more traditional energy system. Almost instantly it began paying for itself. Sullivan estimates that at present, even with the operation costs of The Stack, the university saves $13,000 a month in heat recovery and energy regeneration compared to previous systrems. And over the life of the plant it will save upwards of $25 million.

Compared to a typical grid, the system releases almost 70% less greenhouse gases while generating 8.3 million kWh of electricity, or approximately a fifth of the campus total. It does so at a rate of 83% efficiency, making at more than twice as efficient as grid power by coal.

Sullivan is an unabashed admirer of fuel cell technology. “It is functional 24/7,” he says. “Which you can’t really say about solar or wind.”
The fuel cell plant at Cal State-Northridge seems to have no downside. The system routinely draws scientists and engineers from around the world trying to learn from CSU-Northridge’s success. One can’t help but wonder why the process has not been replicated elsewhere. Sullivan believes that it can, but allows that some unique circumstances have made the plant at Northridge possible. First and foremost is an extremely skilled staff that lets Sullivan and the rest of plant personnel deal with system issues in-house. Many of those skills were developed out of necessity.

One of the few blessings of the devastating earthquake that struck the area in 1994 was that in the course of rebuilding the campus, many members of Sullivan’s team mastered a whole new set of competencies. 

Sullivan, who has been with the university for 23 years, says those new skills served his staff well when the fuel cell plant was built over a decade later. “I don’t know if we do anything different here, but we have a lot of talented people that you probably don’t usually find in a typical university maintenance department,” he says.

Since its inception, Sullivan can count the number of hiccups with the system on one hand. There was a problem with a heating coil a while ago but that was immediately replaced by the manufacturer. Sullivan doesn’t see operations changing much in the near future, “We have a real good institution here.”