Announcements

Altergy Powers the Nation’s First State Christmas Tree Lit by a Fuel Cell System

SACRAMENTO, California – This Christmas season the state of California establishes yet another “first” by becoming the first state in the U.S. to power its official state Christmas tree with a fuel cell system.  The 6,500 lights on the 55-foot white fir tree are illuminated with electricity generated by a Freedom Power™ fuel cell system designed and manufactured by Altergy Systems of Folsom, Calif. 

The Altergy fuel cell system allows the tree’s lights to operate independent of the power grid, demonstrating the state of California’s commitment to clean energy sources and energy efficient technology.  The fuel cell system is nonpolluting; its byproduct is water. 

California’s official state Christmas tree is featured at the State Capitol in downtown Sacramento, where it will be illuminated each evening through January 8.  A tree-lighting ceremony hosted by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver took place Tuesday, December 5 on the west steps of the State Capitol.  Photos and additional information are available on the Governor’s website at http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/fact-sheet/4858/.

"California leads the nation in energy efficiency standards. Once again, California is a pioneer in protecting our environment with this tree, which is powered entirely by a clean, zero-emission power source," said Governor Schwarzenegger.

"Fuel cell-generated power is a viable alternative to traditional power sources," stated Eric Mettler, president and CEO of Altergy Systems.  "The state of California and Altergy are leading the way toward changing the way the world gets its power, as demonstrated by this year’s fuel cell lighting of the state Christmas tree.  We at Altergy are pleased to join with the Governor and First Lady to increase public awareness of fuel cell capabilities during this holiday season." 

The Altergy Freedom Power system demonstrates the ability of fuel cell technology to shift power generation away from centralized systems to point-of-use, distributed systems. Altergy’s proprietary technology breaks critical fuel cell cost barriers and shifts not one, but three existing paradigms:

• The perception that all fuel cells are expensive;
• How fuel cells are designed, manufactured and used; and
• Of greatest significance, how the 21st century world will be powered. 

"Fuel cell technology has a variety of commercial and residential applications," said California Air Resources Board Chairman and Stationary Fuel Cell Collaborative Co-Chair, Dr. Robert F. Sawyer.  "Lighting the State holiday tree with clean fuel cell power is just one example of the flexibility these systems have in real-world applications.  Zero-emission, alternative energy sources such as the fuel cell will help us meet clean air goals and reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

Altergy is a founding industry member of the California Stationary Fuel Cell Collaborative, a public-private partnership working to advance the commercialization of fuel cell and distributed generation technologies throughout the state of California.  The California Stationary Fuel Cell Collaborative played a key role in bringing fuel cell-generated power to this year’s official California State Christmas Tree.

Click here to watch a video of the official tree-lighting.

About Altergy

Altergy Systems® engages in the design, manufacture, marketing and service of proprietary fuel cell power products that are changing the way the world gets its power. Altergy's Freedom Power™ products provide freedom from the grid, freedom from foreign oil, freedom from traditional energy solutions, freedom from batteries and freedom from pollution. These low cost, robust, fully integrated, and high efficiency fuel cell systems generate power at the point-of-use, making low cost, distributed power generation a reality. Altergy's Freedom Power products are a solution to the serious global shortage of premium power and growing demand for low cost, high quality power.

More information about Altergy Systems is available at www.altergy.com.

Altergy, Altergy Systems and Freedom Power are trademarks of Altergy Systems.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Altergy Systems. All Rights Reserved.

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Media Contact:

Nancy Frank
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nancy.frank@altergy.com

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