FuelCell Energy to build a new manufacturing plant

FuelCell Energy Inc. of Danbury has broken ground on a new manufacturing facility in Torrington to meet demand for the company's Direct FuelCell (DFC) power plants.

The 65,000-square-foot facility will expand manufacturing capacity Of power plants to 50 megawatt (MW) annually in 2001, ramping

Construction, including some $16 million worth of new equipment, and the move to the new building are expected to be compi eted by Jan. 31, 2001.

The decision to expand capacity is part of the company's business plan and reflects an increasing number of field trials and orders for the Direct FuelCell from customers such as the Rhoen-Klinikum AG, a hospital in Bad Neustadt, Germany, the U.S. Navy, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Japanese firm, Marubeni Corp.

Most recently, FuelCell Energy was selected by King County, Wash., to negotiate a fuel cell project using municipal digester gas and DFC power plant technology.

The manufacturing facility will be located in Torrington's new technology park.

The Connecticut Development Authority approved funding of up to $4 million to be used to purchase equipment for the facility.

The city of Torrington provided property tax incentives to the company.

FuelCell Energy is expected to create 150 new Jobs in the Torrington Technology Park over the next two-and-a-half years.

FuelCell Energy Inc. (www.fce.com), formerly Energy Research Corp., has developed and commercialized highefficiency fuel cells for electric power generation.

Direct FuelCell technology eliminates external fuel processing to extract hydrogen from a hydrocarbon fuel, resulting In a product whose cost, combined with high efficiency, simplicity and reliability, results in product advantages for stationary power generation.

The company has been developing DFC technology for stationary power plants with the U.S. Department of Energy through the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

The laboratory's advanced fuel cell research program is focused on developing a new generation of high-performance fuel cells that can generate clean electricity at power stations or in distributed locations near the customer.