Market
Announcement
Monday 3 September 2012
Victorian Government extends Feed-in Tariff to include fuel cells
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.
ABN : 055 736 671
Website :
www.cfcl.com.au
ENDS
More information:
• The final VCEC report and the response from the Government are available
at http://www.vcec.vic.gov.au/CA256EAF001C7B21/pages/vcec-inquiries-current-inquiry-into-feed- in-tariffs---barriers-to-distributed-generation
• Contact details for BlueGen distributors are at www.bluegen.info/Distributors/
• More information on the BlueGen product is available at www.bluegen.info.
For more information please contact: Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited
Andrew Neilson (Australia) Tel.
Email
: +61 (3) 9554 2300
: investor@cfcl.com.au
Chris Golden Tel. : +44 (0) 207 776 1200
Australian media enquiries
Richard Allen
Oxygen Financial Public Relations
Mark Way
MW Research PR
Alex Seiler
Hering Schuppener Consulting
Tel. Email
Tel. Email
Tel. Email
: +61 (0) 3 9915 6341
: richard@oxygenpr.com.au
: +44 (0) 7786 116 991
: mark.w@harvardamerica.com
: +49 (0) 69 9218 7454
: aseiler@heringschuppener.com
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 www.bluegen.info
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