Ceramic Fuel Cells Regulatory News (CFU)

17 Jan 2008 07:00

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited17 January 2008 17 January 2008 Ceramic Fuel Cells and Paloma Industries to collaborate on fuel cell CHP products for Japan Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited ("CFCL"), a global leader in fuel cell development,has signed an agreement with Paloma Industries Ltd of Japan to evaluate anddevelop integrated fuel cell micro-combined heat and power (m-CHP) products forthe Japanese market. Japan represents a key market for CFCL. The Japanese Government is providingstrong support for fuel cells and has set targets of generating 2.2GW of powerfrom stationary fuel cell units - equal to 2.2 million 1kW units, by 2010. TheJapanese government currently provides a subsidy of up to 3.5 million JPY(21,700 Euros) per unit. Japan is also a large market for home heatingappliances, with approximately 4.2 million sold per year. Established in 1911, the Paloma Group is a leading world producer of gasappliances for residential and commercial applications. With annual revenues ofapproximately US$2.5 billion, Paloma has manufacturing and sales facilitiesacross the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Oceanic regions. It is one of the leadingsuppliers of home gas heating products in Japan, serving more than 10 millionhomes. Under the agreement, CFCL and Paloma will work together to evaluate and developa commercial m-CHP product by integrating CFCL's advanced fuel cell module witha Paloma home heating appliance. The unit is powered by CFCL's advancedmetal-ceramic fuel cell stack, which currently runs on widely available naturalgas and in the future can also operate on other fuels such as LPG, kerosene,ethanol or biodiesel. The highly efficient m-CHP product can be easily connectedto existing gas and electricity networks and will provide low-carbon emissionelectricity and heating for Japanese homes. As part of the collaboration, CFCL will supply Paloma with a NetGenPlusTM unitfor Paloma to operate at its site in Japan. The unit is expected to be deliveredin mid 2008. Paloma will operate the unit in real-world operating conditions,with CFCL providing technical support from its office in Melbourne. Using theresults of the real-world product operation, which is expected to run for up to12 months, CFCL and Paloma will design and develop integrated m-CHP products tomeet the specifications of the Japanese market. This agreement supplements CFCL's existing product development agreements withappliance partners and utility customers in Germany, France, the United Kingdomand the Benelux countries. Commenting, Brendan Dow, Managing Director of Ceramic Fuel Cells, said: "Our agreement with Paloma is the result of almost two years' technical duediligence and commercial discussions. It marks our entry into the Asian marketand builds our future sales pipeline. Paloma's commitment to producingenergy-efficient products, strong product development expertise, high qualityand low cost system manufacturing, and extensive distribution not just in Japanbut throughout Asia, Australia and the US make it the ideal regional partner forCFCL." Shinya Hibino, General Manager, International of Paloma, said: "We are excited to be entering the CHP market. The Paloma Group has a trackrecord of developing and commercialising innovative, energy-efficient productssuch as solar water heaters, high efficiency condensing water heaters and highefficiency heat pumps. Fuel cells are one of the leading, new, clean energytechnologies for the future and CFCL has one of the most advanced solid oxidefuel cell technologies in the world. We look forward to a successful partnershipwith CFCL". Ends CFCL Managing Director Brendan Dow discusses the agreement with Paloma on aBoardroomradio webcast, available at www.brr.com.au/cfu. Brendan Dow will also host a conference call for analysts at 9.00 am London time(10.00 am CET / 8.00 pm Melbourne time) on Thursday 17 January 2008. For dial innumbers please contact Vicky Watkins at Hogarth on +44 (0) 20 7357 9477 or emailvwatkins@hogarthpr.co.uk. For further information please contact: Ceramic Fuel CellsAndrew Neilson Tel: +61 419 950 771 Email: investor@cfcl.com.au Hogarth Partnership (PR for CFCL) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7357 9477Sarah MacLeod / Sarah Richardson / Vicky Watkins Libertas Capital (NOMAD for CFCL) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7569 9650Aamir Quraishi / Andrew Hardy About CFCL 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. 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 Securities Exchange (code CFU). www.cfcl.com.au About Paloma Paloma Industries Ltd, a company of The Paloma Group, is a privately heldmanufacturing company that began operation in 1911 as a pioneer in the Japanesegas appliance industry. Today, the Paloma Group is a leading world producer ofgas appliances. Paloma's products for residential as well as commercialapplications operate in a broad variety of installations around the world. Paloma Group is headquartered in Nagoya, Japan, and has main manufacturingfacilities or sales offices in Japan, the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, NewZealand, Argentina, China, Vietnam, and Singapore. The Paloma Group'sresidential brands include Paloma, Rheem, Solahard and Everhot. Group annualrevenue is approximately US$2.5 billion, with 15,000 people working for theGroup around the world. www.palomaglobal.com About the Japanese fuel cell CHP market Japan is one of the world's leading and fastest growing markets for fuel cells,and has over 2,100 residential fuel cell systems installed, more than any othercountry in the world. Almost all of these are proton exchange membrane (PEM)fuel cell systems, which run on pure hydrogen. Now the focus is widening to moreefficient SOFC technologies, which can use readily available natural gas. The Japanese Government is providing strong support for fuel cells, and has settargets of generating 2.2GW of power from stationary fuel cell units - equal to2.2 million 1kW units, by 2010. The Japanese government currently provides asubsidy of up to 3.5 million JPY (21,700 Euros) per unit. The Japanese Government has a long term funding and strategic program to supportthe commercialization of residential SOFC CHP units. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has budgeted to spend 1.5billion JPY (9.5 million Euros) on fuel-cell demonstration activities in 2008.In 2007 the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)also budgeted more than 1.5 billion JPY (9.5 million Euros) specifically forSOFC programs. Decentralised energy - especially natural gas CHP units - is spreading quicklyin Japan. Japanese government reports forecast that decentralised powergeneration will double from 2002 to 2030. Japan is also a large market for home heating appliances, with approximately 4.2million units sold per year into a market of 47 million households. More information: Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, the Government of Japan - http://www.enecho.meti.go.jp/ New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization - http://www.nedo.go.jp/english/ http://www.fcdic.com/eng/index.html This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange