Ceramic Fuel Cells opens Dusseldorf plant

Age
Monday 5/10/2009 Page: 2

ASX-listed alternative energy company Ceramic Fuel Cells opened its manufacturing plant in Germany on Friday, and will begin making its Bluegen solid oxide fuel-cell units there. If it gets final safety approvals in February, the company hopes to sell the units for Australian homes from early next year. To be assembled in Melbourne, the units will cost from $8000-$10,000 each and produce up to 17,000 kW/h of electricity a year - more than twice the amount needed to power an average home. Managing director Brendan Dow said the grid-connected units, about the size of a dishwasher, generated electricity from natural gas on-site at higher efficiency and lower cost than coal-fired power.

At a domestic level, the Bluegen units will compete with domestic solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, but Mr Dow said that whereas a 2 kW solar PV system would save about three tonnes of greenhouse gas a year, a Bluegen unit would save 18 tonnes. He said the fuel-cell units operated silently, did not use hydrogen and were safe for Moines. By February he hoped they would be certified as a safe gas appliance. "It is no more hazardous than a regular water heater," he said. "A regular Rinnai continuous flow heater which has an open gas flame would be considered more dangerous than a fuel-cell system. "If there is a fire in the house, the unit would shut down. As soon as we shut the unit off, there's effectively no fuel inside the system."

Mr Dow said a key to the take-up of the units in Australia would be qualifying for renewable energy certificates (RECs), which would give utilities an incentive to install them. "It's difficult to get utilities really interested in Australia under the current climate," he said. "It's pretty frustrating." Bluegen units use a lower emissions technology than heat pumps or waste coal mine gas, both of which will qualify for RECs under the Federal Government regime. On Friday, Ceramic announced a demonstration project with an unnamed retailer, believed to be EnergyAustralia, to install a Bluegen unit in a showcase sustainability home.

Ceramic will also aim to set up a partnership with a distribution company and to make financing available to customers. "A financing package would make it much more attractive because you wont have an upfront cost," he said. Mr Dow said while lie hoped Bluegen units would be sold in Australia, Ceramic's major markets were in Europe, where electricity prices were higher and a carbon price was factored in. The new 9.5 million ($A16 million) plant, near Dusseldorf, would be able to make 10,000 fuel-cells a year. Ceramic shares fell 8% to 27.54 on Friday but have risen fivefold since March, when the company raised $20 million at 54 a share.