Ceramic Fuel Cells signs long term Powder Plant Project

TIDMCFU

RNS Number : 6645N

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited

02 October 2012

Tuesday 2 October 2012

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, is pleased to announce that it hassecured a long term project for its powder plant in the United Kingdom.

Ceramic Fuel Cells has signed an agreement with a multinational ceramics and speciality chemicals company for them to utilise the plant to develop high quality ceramic powder products. The powder plant equipment and CFCL operational staff at the plant will be allocated to the project on a full time basis.

To cover the operating costs of the plant and related staff, Ceramic Fuel Cells will receive a fee of GBP 450,000 for the 12 month project. The agreement also includes an option for the customer to purchase the plant and licence the related intellectual property for a pre-agreed price. For commercial reasons the identity of the customer and the purchase price are confidential.

The plant, in Bromborough, UK, uses Ceramic Fuel Cells' patented equipment to make nano-size ceramic powders which can be used in a range of applications and products.

About Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited:

Ceramic Fuel Cells is a world leader in developing fuel cell technology to generate highly efficient and low-emission electricity from widely available natural gas. Ceramic Fuel Cells has sold its BlueGen gas-to-electricity generator to major utilities and other foundation customers in Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Australia, and the USA. Ceramic Fuel Cells is also developing fully integrated power and heating products with leading energy companies E.ON UK in the United Kingdom, GdF Suez in France and EWE in Germany.

The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM market and the Australian Securities Exchange (code CFU).

www.cfcl.com.au

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

BlueGen units to be used in Virtual Power Plant Project in The Netherlands

19 June 2012

Tuesday 19 June 2012

View a Bluegen overview here

BlueGen units to be used in Virtual Power Plant Project in The Netherlands

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (AIM / ASX: CFU) - a leading developer of high efficiency and low emission electricity generation products for homes and other buildings - is pleased to announce a project in The Netherlands to create a Virtual Power Plant using Ceramic Fuel Cells' BlueGen gas-to-electricity generators.

BlueGen units are planned to be installed with customers across the Netherlands to create a new community of distributed energy producers, connected through the internet and operated as a Virtual Power Plant.

Ceramic Fuel Cells is supporting its distribution partner BlueGeneration that is working on the project with Liander and IBM. This team will start designing a platform on which the Virtual Power Plant can run. During the design phase BlueGeneration, Liander and IBM will design the technical requirements and define the use cases for the platform.

Liander is a Dutch regional network operator, distributing electricity to 3.0 million customers and gas to 2.3 million customers in a large part of the Netherlands. IBM will provide the necessary system integration to control the BlueGen units remotely. IBM's extensive experience in the field of Smart Grids enables the collaboration to implement and scale up the platform.

The project partners have entered the first phase of the project, with three BlueGen units installed with energy consultants' KIWA Gastec for testing at their facilities in Apeldoorn. The aim is to test the compatibility with the designed systems and to have a closed and regulated environment for the first tests. During this test phase of approximately one year the influence of extreme modulation cycles will also be examined as well as the impact for the grid operator.

The tests at Kiwa began in April 2012. The partners are currently developing the Virtual Power Plant design, and intend to scale up the project in the second half of this calendar year and into 2013.

A Virtual Power Plant is a cluster of distributed electricity generation units, controlled and operated by a central entity using integrated software systems. A Virtual Power Plant allows power generation to be modulated up or down to meet peak loads and balance intermittent power from wind or solar, with higher efficiency and more flexibility than large centralised power stations.

By incorporating the Virtual Power Plant in Lianders' Smart Grid, Liander will be able to locally balance the demand and supply of electricity. The end customers will benefit from lower energy costs.

Ceramic Fuel Cells' Managing Director Brendan Dow said:

"Clearly, energy generation systems of the future will involve projects like this. We are delighted that companies like Liander and IBM, as well as our partner BlueGeneration, have seen the benefit of pursuing this virtual power plant, which has our highly-efficient BlueGen units as its cornerstone."

Peter van der Sluijs, Liander said:

"In the future we expect more and more customers to produce their own power and coordinate their energy use locally. Virtual power plants are a big step towards more sustainable energy system where local generation has a critical role."

Matthijs Guichelaar of BlueGeneration said:

"This project is the example of how future flows of energy and IT can provide a solid base for renewable and distributed generation. The flexibility of the BlueGen and its high efficient electricity production makes it a very suitable component for the new Smart Grid. When the usage of biogas becomes available, the system will also be carbon neutral. This enables the agricultural sector to efficiently convert their biogas into electricity."

The BlueGen product uses ceramic fuel cells to turn natural gas into electricity and heat for hot water, with each unit capable of producing more than three times the electricity needed to power the average Dutch home. (In The Netherlands an average home consumes an estimated 3,500 kilowatt hours of electricity per year.)

Surplus electricity can be sold back to the grid or used in supplementary applications such as charging electric cars, as well as having the additional benefit of providing heat for domestic hot water use. BlueGen units generate electricity with the highest electrical efficiency of any small scale generating technology in the world, reducing energy bills and cutting carbon emissions.

In the Netherlands customers are allowed to export electricity to the grid when they have a surplus and take it back from the grid later when they need it without being charged with energy tax on this energy. This tax-free interchange has a maximum of 5000 kWh per year.

According to a report from US analyst firm Pike Research, virtual power plant capacity will increase by 65 percent between 2011 and 2017, rising from 55.6 gigawatts (GW) to 91.7 GW worldwide during that period. In a more aggressive forecast scenario, the capacity growth is up to 126 percent during the same period.

Releasing the report in November 2011, Pike Research senior analyst Peter Asmus said: "Virtual power plants essentially represent an 'Internet of Energy', tapping existing grid networks to tailor electricity supply and demand services for a customer. They maximize value for both the end user and distribution utility, primarily through software innovations."(1)

ENDS

E.ON wins planning approval for 47.5MW wind farm in Scotland

E.ON has secured planning permission from the Highland Council to build a new 47.5MW onshore wind farm near Garve in the Scottish Highlands.

The wind farm will consist of 19 turbines which can provide renewable electricity to power approximately 21,000 homes every year.

E.ON regional director of renewables in the UK Dave Rogers said the development will not only provide clean renewable electricity for Scotland, but will also enable the nation to meet its renewable energy targets.

Currently, the company is building two onshore wind farms in the Highlands, one near Caithness and the other at Rosehall.

The company also owns and operates a biomass power station in Lockerbie and Robin Rigg, which was completed in 2010.

Earlier E.ON also won the exclusive right to explore the potential for new wind energy projects on two lots of land owned by Forestry Commission Scotland.

Offshore Wind Farm in UK begins generating power from its first turbine

Walney Offshore Wind Farm, located 15km west of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, UK, began generating power from its first turbine in January 2011. The turbine is connected to the national grid through an offshore transformer at Heysham.

The project consists of 102 turbines being installed in two phases, Walney I and Walney II. Estimated at £1bn, the project will deliver 367.2MW of combined energy sufficient to power more than 320,000 households in UK.


It is owned by Dong Energy (50.1%), Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE-25.1%) and a consortium of PGGM and Dutch Ampère Equity Fund (24.8%).

Dong Energy is the leading partner and operator of the wind farm. It has signed a 15-year long term power purchase agreement (PPA) with the consortium of PGGM and Dutch Ampère Equity Fund for the purchase of the consortium's share of electricity from the project.

The company plans to sell power purchased from the consortium and the environmental benefits received from the British Government in the local market.

Plant details

Walney is being constructed along a north-west to south-east direction. It will cover an area of approximately 73km².

Walney I and II will each have 51 Siemens turbines with a rated capacity of 3.6MW. The turbines will be 749m-958m apart and installed in rows.

Turbines installed at Walney I will have a rotor diameter of 107m and are 137m tall to the tip of the blade.

Walney II will have turbines with a rotor diameter of 120m. They will have a maximum height of 150m to the centre of the hub.

The turbine arrays will be connected by underwater sea cables to an offshore substation where the voltage will be stepped up from 34kV to 132kV before being exported to an onshore substation.

"Dong Energy is the leading partner and operator of the wind farm."
Development

The project was initially 100% owned by Dong Energy. In December 2009 SSE acquired 25.1% share in the project, which was followed by a consortium of PGGM and Dutch Ampère Equity Fund acquiring 24.8% in December 2010.

The consortium paid £16m to acquire the share. It will also share the project construction cost on a pro-rata basis. The purchase price, however, did not include payment for transmission assets which will be owned by a separate operator in future.

Dong Energy will provide interim finance to the consortium for their share of the construction cost. PGGM / Dutch Ampère Equity Fund will provide external financing to Dong Energy upon completion of the project.

Construction

Construction of Walney I commenced in March 2010. The monopiles were laid by jack-up vessels Vagant and Goliath operated by Belgium-based GeoSea.

The first monopole was installed in April 2010. The export cable was shipped to the site at the same time.

The monopiles are placed 30m deep into the seabed. Each monopile is 56m tall and weighs 550t.

The Walney I offshore substation was placed within the wind farm area. It weighs 1,100t and was erected in June 2010.

Seajacks Kraken and Seajacks Leviathan owned by Seajacks UK have been contracted for the turbine installations in Walney I and Walney II respectively. Sea Worker, a jack-up barge operated by A2Sea, has already installed five wind turbines at the site.

The first turbine was installed in July 2010. It is now generating power for the national grid. All the turbines of Walney I had been installed by December 2010.

The construction vessel Pompei is placing stones at a radius of 15m around the foundation to mark the cable and turbine installation positions.

Walney II is scheduled to begin installations in March 2011. It is expected to come online by the end of the year.

The turbines in Walney II will be placed 25m-30m deep, which will require longer and heavier monopiles weighing up to 800t.

Onshore cabling work is underway in Cleveleys near Blackpool.

Power generated by Walney II will be brought onshore in front of Thornton gate through a 132kV underwater cable. It will be connected to a new substation which is currently under construction along the route to Hill House Industrial Estate.

The cargo ship Annette owned by SAL was contracted to deliver the monopoles to the site.

Stemat 82, a cable installation vessel, is being used to install the array cables in the seabed. The cables are placed in the J-tube and protected with a layer of rocks to prevent scouring.

Walney Wind Farm contractors

Seabed Power was awarded the contract for transporting and installing more than 92km of 33kV array cables for Walney I. The cables were supplied by the nkt cables group.

"Dong Energy plans to extend the Walney offshore wind farm by a further 750MW."
Seabed Power was also responsible for laying 44km and 43km of 132kV export cables in two different routes. The cables were supplied by Prysmian Group in a €24.5m contract. Prysmian was also awarded a €18m contract to supply similar 132kV cables for Walney II.

The offshore substation steel structures and jackets were contracted to Bladt Industries in 2009. The first set for Walney I was delivered in May 2010 while the second set is underway construction.

The aluminium hydraulic cylinders were manufactured by Holmatro.

Powerstream Electrical Services built the onshore substation at Heysham in a contract worth $1.1m in June 2010.

Other major contractors to Walney I are EEW-Special Pipes Construction (SPC) Rostock for the manufacture of 51 monopiles, Visser & Smit Marine Contracting (VSMC) for the Stemat 82 cable lay vessel, Tekmar Solutions for a cable protection system, Proserv Offshore for cleaning of the marine growth around the pile and Ledsham for the construction of an 11kV substation for Siemens.

Walney II contractors include A2Sea and Ballast Nedam for installation of the foundations, Norway-based Draka Norsk Kabel (DNK) for installing the inter-array cables and associated logistics and Offshore Marine Management (OMM) for termination and testing of inter-array cables.

Dong Energy signed an agreement with Associated British Ports (ABP) to use 18 acres of the Barrow area for handling essential components of the wind turbines during construction.

Audit of the barge and tugs used in the project is being carried by Specialist Marine Consultants.

NIRAS was contracted for a number of consultation works related to the project, including geophysical surveys, management of installations, logistics planning and so on.

Future

Dong Energy plans to extend the Walney offshore wind farm by a further 750MW. The company signed a lease agreement with the Crown Estate in May 2010. The proposal is expected to be submitted for planning consent in 2013.

The extension is expected to cover an area of 145km². It will include one offshore substation, 33kV array cables, three core underwater offshore cables and an onshore connection point at either Heysham, Stanah or Penwortham substation.