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The Verizon facility most directly associated with fuel-cell power is its central office in Garden City, New York. In 2005, Verizon installed seven natural-gas-fired fuel-cell units there, with a combined nameplate capacity of 1.4 megawatts. The system supplied electricity alongside the commercial grid and reused some of its heat for building heating and cooling.

Where was Verizon’s fuel-cell facility?

The project was at Verizon’s 292,000-square-foot call-switching center in Garden City, on Long Island. A 2006 report said the center provided telephone and data services to about 35,000 Long Island customers. The project addressed the reliability needs of a large telecommunications facility, rather than household-scale electricity use.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) case study explains the motivation: “Following several costly power outages and interruptions between 1999 and 2001, Verizon created a team to investigate alternative solutions to bolster electric reliability, optimize the company’s energy use, and reduce costs in an environmentally responsible manner.”

How did the Garden City fuel-cell system work?

Verizon installed seven UTC Power PC25C phosphoric-acid fuel-cell units in 2005. Each was rated at 200 kilowatts, giving the installation 1.4 megawatts of total nameplate capacity. The units ran continuously and supplemented electricity from the grid; the grid connection also served as backup.

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The installation was configured for combined heat and power (CHP): in addition to generating electricity, it recovered heat for other uses in the building.

  • Heating: During the heating season, recovered heat supported space heating.
  • Cooling: Two absorption chillers used recovered heat to provide cooling.
  • Heat not captured: Not all low-grade waste heat was used. DOE says integrating the building’s widely dispersed heat uses would have been too costly.

DOE says Verizon selected the PC25C based on the supplier’s performance history and longevity. Those details describe the Garden City project; they should not be assumed to apply to every fuel-cell installation.

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What performance did DOE report?

DOE’s 2014 guide reports historical results and estimates for the Garden City project. They are site-specific figures, not current output, guarantees, or benchmarks for fuel cells generally.

Measure Reported Garden City figure Context
Installed capacity 1.4 MW total Seven 200-kW units installed in 2005; DOE’s 2014 guide.
Combined availability 96.57% Historical project result reported in DOE’s 2014 guide.
Electrical efficiency 37–39% estimated DOE’s 2014 guide estimate for this project.
Thermal efficiency 22% estimated DOE’s 2014 guide estimate for this project.
Combined CHP efficiency 59–61% estimated DOE’s 2014 guide estimate for this project.

Availability describes how often the equipment was available to operate; efficiency figures describe conversion of fuel energy into electricity and useful heat. The DOE figures belong to this historical installation and do not establish how a current system would perform.

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Did Verizon deploy fuel cells at other facilities?

Yes. Verizon announced additional solar and fuel-cell projects in 2013, but its projections and historic project records do not confirm current operation or current generation.

Multi-state solar and fuel-cell project

In April 2013, Verizon announced a $100 million solar and fuel-cell project intended to help power 19 facilities in seven states. The company projected more than 70 million kilowatt-hours of annual generation and more than 10,000 metric tons of annual CO₂ reductions for the combined project. These were projections in the announcement, not independently verified current results.

California solid-oxide installations

In June 2013, Verizon announced an agreement with Bloom Energy for solid-oxide fuel-cell systems at switching centers in Los Angeles and San Francisco and a data center in San Jose. Verizon projected that the California installations would generate more than 16 million kilowatt-hours per year. That figure was an announcement projection, not a reported current measurement.

New York projects in NYSERDA records

NYSERDA’s distributed-energy database lists historic Verizon installations using ClearEdge Power PureCell Model 400 natural-gas systems: 800 kW across two units on Meserole Street in Brooklyn, and 400-kW projects on Clinton Avenue in Brooklyn and Forest Avenue in Staten Island. The database records monitoring periods ending in 2020 or 2023; they do not establish whether the systems are operating now.

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Are Verizon’s fuel cells still operating?

The cited records establish the Garden City installation and other historic projects, but they do not verify whether those systems remain in operation today. The 2013 generation figures were company projections, while the New York database entries describe projects with monitoring periods that ended in 2020 or 2023. Neither type of record confirms present-day operating status.

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