Park to the Future
The Siemens stationary fuel cell to be placed at Parker Dam State Park is about the size of a large refrigerator. Courtesy David Thompson
Parker Dam State Park is cutting edge.
This rustic, remote park in the heart of Moshannon State Forest will be the site of a fuel cell demonstration that should help point the way to Pennsylvania's clean-energy future.
This fall, researchers from Penn State's Energy Institute, working with the state's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), will install a 5-kilowatt stationary fuel cell in the park's new interpretive center. Provided by Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation of Pittsburgh, the unit will convert natural gas from reserves on nearby state forest land into hydrogen, which will then be used to generate heat and power for the new building.
The idea was hatched almost two years ago, says Energy Institute engineer David Thompson. "The 9/11 attacks, followed by the big East-Coast blackout of August 2003, created a lot of concern about energy security," Thompson says. "Fuel cell technologies were recognized as a clean means of distributed energy production, a way to lessen reliance on central power sources."
At a meeting at University Park shortly after the blackout, representatives from state and federal agencies, the state's fuel cell industry, and Penn State brainstormed ways to push forward these technologies. "The idea is to promote the development and acceptance of residential fuel cell systems by demonstrating their effectiveness to the public," Thompson says. "We also want to showcase Pennsylvania activity in this area."
The Parker Dam project takes advantage of natural gas reserves located on unspoiled and inaccessible DCNR-managed forest lands. "Instead of going in and building pipelines or well fields, this could be a way of using the stranded natural gas in an environmentally and economically friendly way," Thompson says.
The park is already burning this resource to heat cabins and administration buildings and provide hot water for showers, he notes. Using it instead to produce electricity and heat on-site could—in addition to substantially reducing carbon emissions—generate four "monetizing events." First, the park won't have to buy electricity from the power company. Second, the excess electricity produced can be sold "back to the grid," allowing the park to become a "customer generator," part of that distributed network of energy producers that would increase the state's energy security. Third, since heat is a by-product of the fuel cell's chemical reaction, that also comes without cost. Finally, producing electricity with hydrogen generates alternative energy credits under the state's new clean-energy incentives.
Once it is set up at the park this fall, the fuel cell will be controlled remotely from the Energy Institute at University Park. Its monitoring system will be accessible on the Web, so that anyone interested can view its operations in real time. "We're working on developing a curriculum around the website," Thompson says. "We think this can be a nice teaching tool."David B. Thompson, B.S., B.A.E., is working toward a graduate degree in Energy and Geo-environmental Engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. He can be reached at dbthompson@engr.psu.edu.
