panasonic bluegen comparison, page-4

Good to get that response. Confirms it all stacks up. It makes the BlueGen price look not so bad, even with their subsidies. Pretty positive. With feed-in tarrifs, government subsidies for the BlueGen, price comparisons would become even more interesting.

"Ignoring subsidies: a 750W Panasonic unit costs 2.76m Yen = AUD 33k. Assuming constant operation, the unit generates 6,500 kWh per year. Nominal cost = $5 per kWh. Output of a 1.5kW BlueGen is double, ie 13,000 kWh per year. At the same cost of $5 per kWh we could charge AUD 65k for a BlueGen in Japan. (Even with the subsidies, 17k for a 750W unit would mean AUD 34k for a 1.5kW BlueGen.)"

They've been selling them at more than that. The 2.76M Yen is after a 20% price lowering.

Reuters article-

"Since the world's first home-use boilers using fuel cells were launched commercially in 2009, home owners in Japan have installed more than 10,000 of them at a price of 3 to 3.5 million yen ($36,000-$42,500) each, creating a market worth about 15 billion yen a year and attracting attention from companies and governments in Europe as well as South Korea.

Such boilers, which in Japan use hydrogen from LNG and LPG, are not self-sufficient as energy-generating devices as their power capacity is only up to 1 kilowatt, but they have been shown to cut electricity bills by about 30 percent."

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFTOE71703L20110209?sp=true

I think also that when gas companies are weighing up prices, they'd be asking themselves what price do you put on gaining a gas customer for 10+ years.