Residential Demonstration Overview
The Department of Defense (DoD) Residential PEM Demonstration Project began in the Fiscal Year 2001 (FY01). Congress appropriated $3.6M to demonstrate domestically-produced, residential-scale, stationary Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells at military facilities, managed by the Fuel Cell Team at the United States Army Engineer Research and Development Center / Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC/CERL). Subsequent project funding in the amounts of $3.4M, $4.3M, and $2.4M have resulted in the continuation of these projects in Fiscal Years 2002, 2003, and 2004, respectively.
Five contractors were selected for the FY01 PEM demonstration solicitation, representing a total of 21 PEM fuel cells at nine U.S. military sites. Five contractors were selected for the FY02 PEM demonstration, representing a total of 26 PEM fuel cells at 15 U.S. military sites. Eight contractors were selected for the FY03 PEM demonstration, representing a total of 29 PEM fuel cells at 20 U.S. military sites. Four contractors were selected for the FY04 PEM demonstration, representing 15 PEM fuel cells at 12 U.S. military sites.
For this project, ERDC/CERL researchers developed and advertised a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) solicitation, which outlined the requirements for proposals. The core set of requirements are:
- All PEM fuel cells shall be produced in the U.S.
- Units to be installed at U.S. military facilities.
- Fuel cell contract awardees are responsible for all siting and installation requirements.
- Fuel cells will provide 1 year of fuel cell power with 90% unit availability.
- All units will have comprehensive maintenance contract for minimum 1 year demonstration period.
- Data performance monitoring will be conducted for each PEM unit.
- Contract includes an option for removal of fuel cell and site restoration.
- Location of PEM fuel cell will be in a specified U.S. geographic region.
Building applications are not required to be residential facilities, but could also include commercial and remote building applications. The demonstration PEM fuel cells may include any of the following options:
- Fuel Type - natural gas, propane, hydrogen, other
- Fuel Options - fuel switching, no fuel switching, fuel blending
- Electrical Interface - grid-connected, grid-independent, both (alternating)
- Thermal Interface - cogeneration, no cogeneration
- Unit Configurations - individual, multiple units
Two ERDC Tech Reports have been published describing the overall PEM Fuel Cell Demonstration Fleet
Each individual site will also have a final report detailing the fuel cell installation, maintenance, performance, etc. The individual sites can be viewed on the Residential PEM Demonstration Site Map.
Component failure has been a major area of research for ERDC/CERL during the Residential PEM Demonstration. The following link has information on the component failure analysis and presentations done by ERDC/CERL at conferences.
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