Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited CFU organisation change to focus on Europe

TIDMCFU

RNS Number : 6530O

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited

15 October 2012

Monday 15 October 2012

CFCL Strengthens Sales Resources in Germany

Aligns activities in Australia

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (AIM / ASX: CFU) a leading developer of generators which use fuel cell technology to convert natural gas into electricity and heat for homes and other buildings, announces that it is continuing to invest in measures to quickly increase sales in Germany.

We are pleased to announce that Mr Andreas Ballhausen has joined Ceramic Fuel Cells' European management team as Commercial Director. Mr Ballhausen will be responsible for leading our business development, sales and customer service activities in Germany.

Mr Ballhausen joins Ceramic Fuel Cells from leading German energy utility EWE, where he has held various senior management positions since 1996. Most recently Mr Ballhausen was in charge of establishing and running EWE'sbusiness unit selling energy services and contracting solutions for households, industry and communities.

Mr Ballhausen has extensive experience with fuel cells and micro combined heat and power products, having led EWE's project to evaluate, install and operate fuel cell products from a number of suppliers over many years. EWE was Ceramic Fuel Cells' first customer in Germany, and has been testing and operating our products since 2006. Mr Ballhausen is also a member of various committees in the energy sector, including the German Fuel Cell Initiative (IBZ).

"We are delighted that Andreas Ballhausen has chosen to join Ceramic Fuel Cells. His expertise in the field of fuel cell technology and his many years of experience in sales of CHP technologies are a tremendous asset to ourCompany," said Brendan Dow, Managing Director of Ceramic Fuel Cells.

"I'm looking forward to the new responsibilities at Ceramic Fuel Cells. High-efficiency micro-CHP systems can make a significant contribution to the success of renewable energy in Germany and in Europe. Ceramic Fuel Cells' BlueGen product offers an outstanding micro fuel cell power plant, and I look forward to driving our sales effort with a lot of passion," said Mr Ballhausen.

Earlier this month Ceramic Fuel Cells announced that 25 of its BlueGen gas-to-electricity units are being used to power Germany's first commercial, virtual fuel cell power plant.

The virtual power plant was officially opened on Tuesday 2 October by Mr Peter Altmaier, Germany's Federal Minister for the Environment, Mr Johannes Remmel, Minister for the Environment in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, together with Mr Bernd Wilmert, Chairman of the Board of the municipal utility network Trianel, and Sven Becker, CEO of Trianel.

During the opening ceremony at the Eurogress congress centre in Aachen, Mr Altmaier declared that distributed electricity generation and energy efficiency, along with a coordinated expansion of renewable energies and electricity grids on a national level, are central elements of the electricity market of tomorrow: "Virtual power plant networks are progressive milestones on the way to a successful energy reform," Altmaier said.

To underline the Company's further support for its European activities we have realigned the structure of our headquarters in Noble Park Melbourne to more effectively support our European markets. The changes, along with outsourcing of cell production are expected to result in annualised ongoing cost savings of approximately AUD 5 million and a reduction in headcount since 1(st) July this year of 56 staff.

Brendan Dow CFCL's Managing Director said "We are quickly aligning our corporate structure and operational activities to reduce overhead costs and to focus our resources on markets where we believe we can achieve immediate and significant sales growth - Germany, the UK and the Benelux markets. In the short term we are reducing our direct sales resources in other markets, Australia, Japan and North America."

Ceramic Fuel Cells achieved solid sales growth over the last financial year. The number of BlueGen and integrated mCHP units sold increased by 177 percent, and revenue increased by 82 percent to AUD 6.7 million in FY12. 

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'via Blog this'

In 2010, wind energy competitiveness greatly increased

The cost of wind turbines on the main international wind farm markets fell below one million euro per MW, which is the lowest wind power generation cost that was ever registered.

Oversupply and increased manufacturing efficiency. According to the most recent edition of the Wind Turbine Price Index published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, this is why in 2010 all major wind farm markets registered a sharp fall in prices of onshore wind turbines.

The Bloomberg NE index examined more than 150 sale contracts of onshore wind turbines, for a total of nearly 7,000 MW in 28 countries around the world, focusing on Europe and the Americas. It was found that in the first half of the year the average price of wind turbines for the buyer was 980,000 €/MW (with peaks of 900,000), recording a 7% decrease over the previous year and a 19% drop compared with the peak reached in 2007-2008.

Specifically, UK, USA and Italy benefited the most from the reduced cost of wind turbines.

According to Bloomberg NE, wind energy generation cost has currently reached its all-time lowest point. In a number of wind installations located in areas with excellent wind conditions (in the US, Sweden, Mexico and Brazil), the current cost of generated energy (including capital and maintenance costs and excluding the effect of incentives ) roughly amounts to $68 per MWh (50 €). For comparison, according to Bloomberg updated average cost of coal power plants amounts to $67 per MWh and $56 MWh for gas-fired plants.

Dropping wind turbine prices may be uncomfortable for manufacturers, but it is good news for wind farm project developers and it further improves the cost-competitiveness of wind energy compared with gas and coal. The main conclusions of the analysis are:

• Global turbine contracts signed in late 2010 for delivery in H1 2011 and H2 2011 display very aggressive pricing, with average values at €0.98m/MW ($1.33m/MW). This is a 7% decrease compared to contracts signed in 2009 (€1.06m/MW) and 19% down from peak values in 2007-08 (€1.21m/MW).

• The decrease in the Wind Turbine Price Index is partly driven by a larger proportion of US based contracts compared to the previous issue of the Index (July 2010), but pricing remains aggressive in all parts of the world.

• Low-priced power-purchase-agreements in markets with exposure to electricity prices – rather than fixed feed-in tariffs – seem to have put further pressure on turbine contracts: Italy, the UK and the US all display average pricing well below €1m/MW for contracts signed in 2010 for delivery in H2 2011. The US presents the lowest pricing of all markets so far with values averaging $1.27m/MW (€0.93/MW).

• All manufacturers covered by the survey have displayed aggressive pricing, including several contracts for leading ("Tier 1") manufacturers – in some cases below €0.90m/MW ($1.22m/MW).

• The cost of electricity generated from wind power is now at record lows: several wind farm projects in high resource areas (US, Brazil, Sweden, Mexico) display a levelised cost of energy – excluding the impact of subsidies but after including the cost of capital and maintenance – below EUR 50/MWh ($68/MWh). This compares to current estimated average costs of $67 per MWh for coal-fired power and $56 per MWh for gas-fired power.

• Onshore turbine prices per MW of capacity are now for the first time lower than they were before the surge in steel and other commodity prices. The levelised cost of wind power has been driven down not only by lower turbine costs, but also by higher yields per MW of capacity.

• Procurement officers for the developers in the survey expect prices to stabilise around current levels for 2011 and 2012, with few further reductions in the near term. They expect gradual increases in pricing from 2012–13 as global demand recovers.

The Bloomberg New Energy Finance Wind Turbine Price Index includes the cost of turbines, as well as transport to site (marine and overland) but excludes VAT, construction and connection costs.

Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, commented: “The latest edition of our Wind Turbine Price Index shows wind continuing to become a competitive source of large-scale power. For the past few years, wind turbine costs went up due to rising demand around the world and the increasing price of steel. Behind the scenes wind manufacturers were reducing their costs, and now we are seeing just how cheap wind energy can be when overcapacity in the supply chain works its way through to developers."


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