email to co on bloom, page-7

Guys as I stated previously I was more interested to see whether the guys at CFU were up to speed here & what their thoughts were, rather than wondering if ours was better or not (that is really a given...).

I have however had a fantastic response from the company. I really do think these guys have what it takes to make huge things happen here.

Response from Andrew Nielsen

""Hi (haka)

Thanks for your note. Yes we've seen the Bloom Energy PR machine crank into overdrive. They have been around for many years (they used to be called Ion America) but have only recently come out of 'stealth' mode.

They are developing SOFC products. SOFCs have been around for years - Bloom did not "invent" them. CFCL was one of the earliest - founded in 1992. The core technology is similar but different application: they are targeting large installations (100kW +) we are focused on residential (1-2kW). Noted their ambition to develop a smaller product in 5-10 years. They should not underestimate the challenges of doing this. Fuel cells are a bit like batteries: they are best suited to certain sizes (eg a watch battery cannot be scaled up to power a car).

It's actually good news for us that Bloom is generating so much PR. They can educate the market and general public about fuel cells and the concept of distributed generation - we can then sell our products into the (primed) market. We don't see them as a direct competitor.

We have achieved far higher electrical efficiency than any other technology at our scale - including any other fuel cell. We have operated units in field trials for over 140,000 hours. We have early sales to many leading EU utilties and other foundation customers in Japan and Australia. We have a volume manufacturing plant up and running. And we have a product, BlueGen, that is close to being CE approved for sale. So we are very confident with our position.

We have been watching the US market for several years now. It's a fragmented market but certain states, including California, are very attractive. Our short term focus is Europe and Australia but I am sure we will enter the US market at some stage. If Bloom can prime the market for us, great.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Andrew Neilson


What a fantastic well thought out response.