in the news buy9 Oct 2009 19:57
Ceramic Fuel Cells
Some companies should prove resilient however, including Ceramic Fuel Cells, which has pioneered a way to introduce cheap electricity into the home. Most fuel cell companies are still at the experimental stage.
Ceramic Fuel Cells (CFC) has already begun to manufacture products and has agreements in place with leading utility groups, such as EWE inGermany, Gaz de France and Paloma of Japan. The company has also signed a contract with UK energy provider, E.On to create a special product for the British market.
CFC has two basic products, one of which provides heat, hot water and electricity for the home - a combined heat and power unity - and the other of which provides heat and electricity. The combined units are being developed in partnership with various utility companies but the heat and electricity units have been launched independently by CFC. Known as BlueGen boxes, the units are about the same size as a dishwasher.
They generate electricity using natural gas so they are not entirely 'green' but they are much more efficient than mainstream commercial generators, converting each kilowatt of gas into 0.6 kilowatts of electricity, compared to conventional conversion rates of 0.4. This means they use less gas so energy bills are lower.
BlueGen boxes are not cheap to buy. Coming on the market in Britain next year, they will probably set early users back by £7000 but they do pay their way. Each year, they make around two and a half times