Victorian Government extends Feed-in Tariff to include fuel cells

RNS Number : 3249L

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited

03 September 2012

Monday 3 September 2012

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (AIM / ASX: CFU), a leading developer of small generators that use fuel cell technology to convert natural gas into electricity and heat for homes and other buildings, welcomes the announcement by the Victorian Government that feed-in tariffs will be extended to include small scale low emissions generators like fuel cells.

Today the Victorian Government announced that Victoria's solar feed-in tariff will be broadened to include all low-emissions and renewable technologies of less than100 kilowatts. From 1 January 2013, the new tariff will initially provide a minimum of eight cents per kilowatt hour of electricity exported to the grid, which is based on the adjusted wholesale price of electricity. The rate will then be updated each year in line with the adjusted wholesale electricity rate.

Feed-in tariffs are payments to distributed generators for electricity generated at their premises and fed back into the power grid.

The Government has accepted the recommendations of the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission (VCEC), which began a review into feed-in tariffs in January this year. Ceramic Fuel Cells was involved in the consultation process with VCEC.

The new feed-in tariff will be available for all electricity generators of less than 100 kilowatts which produce 50 percent or less of the emissions intensity of electricity generation in Australia.

Ceramic Fuel Cells' BlueGen gas to electricity generator will be eligible for this feed-in tariff, making Victoria the first State in Australia to provide a feed-in tariff for fuel cells.

BlueGen customers are already eligible to receive feed-in tariffs in Germany and the United Kingdom. Both markets have recently announced increases to their feed-in tariffs. The tariff in Germany is equivalent to approximately 14 Australian cents per kilowatt hour (11.5 Euro cents), while the total tariff in the UK is up to approximately 26 Australian cents per kilowatt hour (17 pence).

Ceramic Fuel Cells' Managing Director Brendan Dow said:

We welcome the Victorian Government's decision to extend the feed-in tariff to low emissions generators like our BlueGen product. We hope that other States will follow Victoria's lead so we can further develop the market in Australia for our locally developed clean energy technology. In the meantime we will continue to build sales in our key markets of Germany and the UK.

Ceramic Fuel Cells' BlueGen product converts natural gas into electricity and heat for hot water for homes and other buildings. BlueGen delivers an electrical efficiency of up to 60 percent - higher than any other form of small scale electricity generation. When the heat from BlueGen is used to produce hot water, total efficiency increases to up to 85 percent.

BlueGen units are operating with customers in Melbourne, Shepparton, Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane, as well as in Europe, Japan and the USA. In Australia BlueGen units are available to commercial and Government customers through our distributors Harvey Norman Commercial and Hills Solar.

ENDS