Ceramic Fuel Cells Regulatory News (CFU)

12 Dec 2006 12:00

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited12 December 2006 UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 12.00 NOON GMT / 1.00pm CET Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited Announces Significant Milestone in Proposed Development of Fuel Cell Manufacturing Facility at Nuon Industrial Park in Germany North Rhine-Westphalian Government to Invest €3.2 Million Dusseldorf, Germany, 12 December 2006 - Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited, a worldleading manufacturer of solid oxide fuel cells for micro-combined heat and power(m-CHP) units, today announces that it is to develop a large-scale manufacturingfacility at the Oberbruch industrial park in Heinsberg, Germany, which is ownedand managed by Nuon, a leading Dutch energy company with strong developinginnovative activities in Germany. The government of the State of NorthRhine-Westphalia is supporting the project by providing funding worth €3.2million. Work on the volume manufacturing plant, which will run in two phases, will startin January 2007. The first phase is scheduled to be completed during 2009 andwill involve the installation of a semi-automated production line in an existingbuilding in the Nuon industrial park. The production line is designed to produceup to 50,000 1kW fuel cell stacks per year in a continuous 24/7 operation. Thesecond phase will involve the installation of three additional fully automatedproduction lines designed to produce up to 150,000 units per year in a newpurpose-built factory adjacent to the existing building. Ceramic Fuel Cells havesigned a lease for the existing building for phase 1 and have secured an optionto buy the 'greenfield' land for phase 2. Ceramic Fuel Cells intends to fund theproject through a combination of debt and equity, and is in discussion withlocal financiers. Nuon is a leading supplier of gas and electricity with operations in theNetherlands, Germany and Belgium. Nuon has five million residential customers,10,000 staff and revenue of €5 billion. The Oberbruch industrial park inHeinsberg is the headquarters of Nuon's shared services centre. Nuon provides arange of services to tenants at the industrial park, which include a number ofhigh-tech material and engineering companies. The site also features its ownlarge gas-powered CHP plant and wastewater treatment plant. Heinsberg has alarge local skilled population and the project is expected to createapproximately 200 new jobs. Brendan Dow, Chief Executive Officer of Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd, comments: "We are delighted to have achieved another significant milestone: theidentification of the site in Europe where we will build our commercialmanufacturing plant. Germany is the leading market for residential fuel celldevelopment in Europe and, with a highly skilled labour force, the region ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia provides one of the most advanced industry clusters forfuel cell technology in Europe. "Ceramic Fuel Cells will scale up production significantly at this plant, whichwill allow us to increase revenue, reduce unit costs and feed the growing marketdemand for fuel cell energy products. "We welcome the leadership of the North Rhine-Westphalian government infostering the fuel cell industry, and acknowledge their strong support for theCompany's project. We are also delighted to be working with Nuon as a partner atthe Heinsberg site." A conference call for analysts will take place at 2.00pm GMT / 3.00pm CET today.Please contact Julie Cordice at Hogarth Partnership on +44 (0) 20 7357 9477 fordetails. For further information please contact: Ceramic Fuel Cells Hogarth PartnershipAndrew Neilson Nick Denton / Sarah MacLeodBrendan Bilton Tel.: +44-(0)20-7357 9477Tel.: +61-419-950 771Tel.: +44-(0)7798-554 191E-mail: investor@cfcl.com.au Nuon Deutschland GmbH Nuon Deutschland GmbHc/o Publiplikator UnternehmenskommunikationRobert Mosberg Heike KlumpeTel.: +49-(0)30 - 200 898 26 Tel.: +49-(0)30-40 90 2 193Fax: +49-(0)30 - 200 898 99 Fax: +40-(0)30-40 90 2 199Mobile: +49-(0)171-40 76 774 Mobile: +49-(0)151-1743 41 38E-mail: mosberg@publiplikator.de E-mail: heike.klumpe@nuon.com NOTES TO EDITORS About Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited is a world 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. Ceramic Fuel Cells is developing SOFC products for small-scale on-sitemicro combined heat and power (m-CHP) and distributed generation units thatco-generate electricity and heat for domestic use. Ceramic Fuel Cells is listedon the London Stock Exchange AIM market and the Australian Stock Exchange (codeCFU). www.cfcl.com.au About Nuon Nuon Deutschland GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dutch group nv Nuon.Nuon has been active in Germany since 2000. In addition to supplying electricityand gas to commercial and residential customers, innovative industrial parkmanagement is one of the company's core activities. www.nuon.dewww.industriepark-oberbruch.de This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange