UTC Power
Encyclopedia
About
UTC Power is a fuel cell company based in South Windsor, ConnecticutSouth Windsor, Connecticut
-History:In 1659, Thomas Burnham purchased the tract of land now covered by the towns of South Windsor and East Hartford from Tantinomo, chief sachem of the Podunk Indians. Burnham lived on the land and later willed it to his nine children...
. It is part of United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) and has been in business for over 50 years. The company has experience in all five major fuel cell technologies. The company specializes in fuel cells for buildings, buses
Fuel cell bus
A fuel cell bus is a bus that uses a hydrogen fuel cell as its power source for electrically driven wheels, sometimes augmented in a hybrid fashion with batteries or a supercapacitor....
and automobiles
Fuel cell vehicle
A Fuel cell vehicle or Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle is a type of hydrogen vehicle which uses a fuel cell to produce electricity, powering its on-board electric motor...
. It has also developed fuel cells for space
Space
Space is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum...
and submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
applications.
History
UTC Power began as a division of Pratt & Whitney in 1958. UTC Power supplied fuel cells to NASA for the Apollo project space missions, to supply electric power and drinking water for the astronauts on board and, later, for the Space ShuttleSpace Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
missions. The company was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of UTC and named International Fuel Cells. It has since been renamed UTC Fuel Cells and, most recently, UTC Power.
In the early 1990s, UTC Power commercialized a large, stationary fuel cell for use as a cogeneration
Cogeneration
Cogeneration is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat....
power plant. The company has expanded into the broader fuel cell industry over the last 10 years, developing fuel cells for automobiles, buses, and marine applications.
Fuel cells for buildings
More than 270 UTC Power PureCell Systems have been deployed and installed in 19 countries on 6 continents. UTC Power fuel cells are operating at Whole Foods Markets in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts; Price Chopper stores in New York, a Coca-Cola Refreshments bottling facility in New York, a powerplant in South Korea and at other sites around the world.