Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (AIM/ASX: CFU), a leading developer of high efficiency and low emission electricity generation units for homes and other buildings, has sold a BlueGen power and heating unit to European utility Alliander.
Alliander supplies gas and electricity to 2.9 million customers in The Netherlands and Germany, including to the local Heinsberg area, where Ceramic Fuel Cells has opened a volume fuel cell stack manufacturing plant.
From Q2 2010 Alliander will operate a BlueGen unit in one of its buildings in the Industriepark Oberbruch in Heinsberg, to evaluate the technology for further deployment and to demonstrate the product to customers and potential partners in the Heinsberg region. Alliander is evaluating the BlueGen product as part of its vision to create a smart grid network in the local region.
About the size of a dishwasher, each BlueGen unit can produce twice the electricity needed to power an average home, with the surplus electricity sold back to the grid. BlueGen also produces heat, to make enough hot water for an average home. BlueGen units can generate electricity more efficiently than the current European power grid, significantly reducing a home's carbon emissions and cutting energy bills.
Ceramic Fuel Cells has achieved electrical efficiency of 60 percent, far higher than any other technology in the rapidly expanding market for small scale power and heating generators. When heat is recovered from the electricity production process, total efficiency is up to 85 percent - twice as efficient as the average among current European power stations.
By generating power close to where it is used, Ceramic Fuel Cells' products can meet the future demand for electricity without the need for huge investments in electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure.
The order from Alliander follows recent BlueGen orders from other leading European utilities E.ON Ruhrgas, RheinEnergie, EWE and Gasterra, as well as customers in Australia and Japan. Ceramic Fuel Cells has also deployed fully integrated power and heating products with leading energy companies E.ON UK in the United Kingdom and GdF Suez in France.
CFU Price at posting:
15.9¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
