Ceramic Fuel Cells Regulatory News (CFU)

22 Dec 2009 07:00

22 December 2009

CERAMIC FUEL CELLS COMPLETES GERMAN PLANT FINANCING AND REGIONAL GRANT 

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 successfully obtained financing for part of the costs of its volume manufacturing plant. The plant is located in the Industriepark Oberbruch, 40 minutes' drive from Dusseldorf in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, and was officially opened in October 2009.

Ceramic Fuel Cells has received a regional development grant of €1,386,000 from the Government of North Rhine Westphalia. The funding, which has been received by Ceramic Fuel Cells, requires the Company to meet certain requirements as to expenditure on construction of the plant and the creation of jobs.  The company has already met the requirement regarding the expenditure on the plant and expects to employ more people at the plant to meet increasing demand.

Ceramic Fuel Cells has also entered a financing lease with German banking group Commerzbank over some of the equipment at the Heinsberg plant. Under this arrangement Ceramic Fuel Cells has received net funding of €1,528,849.

The total net funds to be received by Ceramic Fuel Cells under both arrangements is €2,914,849.

The volume manufacturiung plant has a design capacity of 10,000 fuel cell stacks per year, using state of the art automated manufacturing equipment. All pieces of equipment have been commissioned on-site and are operational.

Speaking at the official plant opening on 2 October 2009, Dr Jens Baganz, State Secretary for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, said: "Fuel cells with high efficiency are a key technology of the future with significant economic potential. In Oberbruch it is now possible that a future industry can be developed.  Given the global challenges of climate change, there are very promising market opportunities for fuel cell technology."

ENDS

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About Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited is a world leader in developing solid oxide fuel cell technology to provide highly efficient and low-emission electricity from widely available natural gas. The company is developing micro combined heat and power and distributed generation units that generate electricity and heat for homes and other buildings. Ceramic Fuel Cells is developing products with leading appliance partners and utility customers in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Japan. In May 2009 the company launched its BlueGen gas-to-electricity product. Ceramic Fuel Cells is headquartered in Melbourne, and has operations in the UK and Germany. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM market and the Australian Securities Exchange (code CFU).

www.cfcl.com.au