Ceramic Fuel Cells Regulatory News (CFU)

9 Jul 2007 07:00

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited09 July 2007 9th July 2007 E.ON UK and Ceramic Fuel Cells to collaborate on development of new greener microgeneration in the home Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL), a global leader in fuel cell development, andE.ON UK, the company that runs Powergen, have signed an agreement to develop anddeploy a prototype fuel cell combined heat and power unit in the UK. The companies will work together to develop a fully-integrated micro CHP unit,incorporating CFCL's fuel cell, that can be fitted into homes. The highly efficient new units would be able to power a wide range of UK homesand would also help to reduce carbon emissions in the UK. Bob Taylor, Managing Director of Energy Wholesale and Technology at E.ON UK,said: "Whether we're building one of the world's largest offshore wind farmsright here in the UK or helping our customers fit microgeneration measures, ouraim is to change the way that we generate and distribute energy. These new unitsare yet another example of that work. "We're keen to get the units out into homes to see exactly what they can do.While we're still at a trial stage, we believe that CFCL's technology is themost advanced offer in the market, and that these fuel cells could make a realdifference to our customers' carbon footprint." E.ON is contributing to the product development costs and retains a first optionto purchase future CFCL micro CHP units for the British market. The agreementwith CFCL complements E.ON's existing activities in the field of micro CHP. Brendan Dow, Managing Director of CFCL, said: "As climate change emerges as oneof the greatest challenges for modern society, we believe that CFCL is wellplaced to deliver energy-saving initiatives to reduce carbon emissions in thehome. "With this agreement we are now very close to achieving our partneringobjectives in Europe. We look forward to working with E.ON UK to bring ourenergy-saving technology to homes and small businesses throughout the UK." CFCL is planning to announce its appliance partner responsible for manufacturingthe units in due course. During the collaboration, CFCL will supply a NetGen+ unit for operation with asupplementary boiler and a specially designed thermal store to produce an'Alpha' prototype which will subsequently be deployed in a field trial. Thecurrent project schedule is for the NetGen+ unit to be delivered by December2007 and the Alpha unit to be developed in Q2 2008. The partners have agreed to discuss further co-operation in the subsequentdevelopment and deployment of 'Beta' CHP units (comprising CFCL's fuel cellmodule fully integrated with a condensing boiler) as well as commercial targetsfor fuel cell m-CHP units for the UK residential market. Ends Ceramic Fuel Cells will host a conference call for analysts this morning at08.30 British Summer Time. Please contact Hogarth PR on +44 (0) 20 7357 9477 fordetails. Notes to editors: Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited is a leader in developing solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) technology which can provide reliable, energy efficient, high-quality,and low-emission electricity from widely available natural gas and renewablefuels. CFCL is developing SOFC products for small-scale on-site micro combinedheat and power (m-CHP) and distributed generation units that co-generateelectricity and heat for domestic use. CFCL is listed on the London StockExchange AIM market and the Australian Stock Exchange (code CFU). E.ON UK is the UK's largest integrated power and gas company - generating anddistributing electricity, and retailing electricity and gas for around 8.5million electricity and gas customer accounts. E.ON UK is part of the E.ONgroup, the world's largest investor-owned power and gas company. E.ON UK employsaround 16,000 people in the UK. For further information please contact: Ceramic Fuel CellsBrendan Bilton Tel: +44 (0) 7798 554 191Andrew Neilson Tel: +61 419 950 771 Email: investor@cfcl.com.au Hogarth Partnership (PR to Ceramic Fuel Cells) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7357 9477Nick Denton / Sarah MacLeod / Sarah Richardson Libertas Capital (Nominated Adviser to CFCL) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7569 9650Aamir Quraishi, Andrew Hardy E.ON UKJonathan Smith Tel: +44 (0) 2476 183 676 Email: jonathan.smith@eon-uk.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange