Verizon Communications expects to save roughly $250,000 per year thanks to a fuel cell pilot project. Verizon began working to find alternative energy sources due to soaring oil prices and increased energy costs. The $13 million fuel cell pilot at its office building and switching center in Garden City, a suburb of New York City, is the largest known trial of this new energy technology in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Energy provided major funding for the project, and Verizon expects additional funding for the expansion of the project to come from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

Each of the seven fuel cells in the project is capable of generating 200 kilowatts of electrical power per hour. Verizon estimates that using this new technology reduces the amount of carbon dioxide that would have been released by a typical fossil-fuel power plant supplying its power by 11.1 million pounds. According to Verizon’s announcement on the project, “The new fuel cells will use natural gas piped in from local gas company Keyspan to obtain the hydrogen atoms for the chemical process. The natural gas is not burned. Instead, the hydrogen atoms are detached from the gas as it is fed into each of the seven cells, and then combined with oxygen atoms from the air to generate direct current electrical power. Heat and water is then vented from each cell, and direct current is converted to alternating current electricity for use in the building.”

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