Good to get that response. Confirms it all stacks up. It makes...

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.