What is JOBS FC?

Developed for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fuel Cell Technologies by Argonne National Laboratory and RCF Economic and Financial Consulting, Inc., JOBS and economic impacts of Fuel Cells (JOBS FC) is a spreadsheet model that estimates economic impacts from the manufacture and use of select types of fuel cells.

How does it work?

JOBS FC uses input-output methodology to estimate changes in industry expenditures, and calculates the ripple effects of those changes throughout the economy.

The following figure illustrates the types of transactions anticipated to support fuel cell manufacturing and deployment in early markets. JOBS FC maps transactions to economic sectors represented in the RIMS II (Regional Input output Modeling System) model to estimate resulting impacts on employment, earnings and economic output.

How is it used?

Scenario Selection

Users can define a variety of scenarios with JOBS FC. They can specify cost and operating parameters or use the defaults provided in the tool. To get started, users must enter a handful of required inputs at the top of the INPUTS spreadsheet which is associated with their desired fuel cell application – forklifts , backup power or prime power may be modeled in JOBS FC 1 To select a scenario, users must choose:

• A geography (any one of the 50 states, the nine census regions, or the US as a whole)
• A fuel cell technology (polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells for forklifts or backup power, and either phosphoric acid (PAFC) or molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) for prime power)
• An annual number of fuel cells to be produced, imported and exported for the selected geography in the years 2015-2020

Gross versus net analysis

Users electing to run a national analysis also must choose whether to calculate gross impacts or both gross and net impacts. Gross impacts are the jobs, earnings and economic output attributable to fuel cell production and use. Net impacts are the result of subtracting from the gross totals the jobs, earnings and output that are displaced by fuel cells. Employment results are reported as job years (i.e., one year of work for one person). The difference between gross and net employment results is shown in the following illustration.

System requirements

JOBS FC must be run in Microsoft Excel 2010® for full functionality. The model is available as an open-source software package copyright by UChicago Argonne, LLC. Prior to downloading the model, users must register.

JOBS FC 1.1

Released in December 2012, version 1.1 of the model contains the following updates /changes:

• Revisions to the prime power module to reflect more detailed expenditure breakdowns developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
• Addition of a new module to estimate economic impacts associated with building a new prime power manufacturing facility.
• Revisions to the fuel cell manufacturing cost forecasting function.
• Updates to default values.