Fuel Cell Technologies Ltd., the operating subsidiary of Fuel Cell Technologies Corp. (FCT, Kingston, ON), a developer of solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems, shipped four systems in the first quarter of 2005. In March, FCT installed the first residential fuel cell system at the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology in Ottawa as part of a joint project with Natural Resources Canada.
The second system was shipped to the Federal University Itajuba in Brazil. The National Research Council's Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation (NRC-IFCI) in Vancouver received the third system, which will provide electricity to power a ground source heat pump providing climate control to the new NRC-IFCI building. The co-generated waste heat will be utilized for building services. Initially, the system will operate on natural gas and NRC-IFCI will also run the system on methanol.
The fourth shipment was a balance of plant system delivered to Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. to test its new high power density cells, which when incorporated into FCT's systems will allow for significant cost reduction.
On January 12, 2005, FCT announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding the design, development and manufacture of a 2 kW to 3 kW SOFC system with TOTO Ltd. (Kitakyusyu-City, Japan). Under the terms of the MOU, FCT anticipates that it will design and build a small SOFC system for residential markets using tubular cell stacks supplied by TOTO. Japanese and European markets in particular are expected to require a small system to complement FCT's existing 5 kW product utilizing SWPC tubular cell stacks.
