Fuel cells are like hydrogen/ oxygen batteries on constant discharge. Because they are small electricity generators and operate on natural gas and other clean fuels, fuel cells are getting increasing attention as non-polluting modular power plants for crowded urban environments and remote isolated sites. This talk reviews the commercial, near-commercial, and developmental fuel cell technologies and puts fuel cells in an electric utility industry perspective along with combustion turbines, wind, solar photovoltaic, and other modular distributed electric generation options.

Dr. George Preston is Vice President, Generation, at the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto. He is responsible for all of EPRI's R&D programs in fossil and renewable electricity production, including coal, oil and gas fired steam boiler plants, combustion turbines, fluid bed combustion, fuel cells, coal gasification, hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, solar, biomass, and environmental control technologies. As an EPRI corporate officer he is also responsible for EPRI's membership marketing and satisfaction in the south central U.S. (Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi).