Shares digital

Hot on the heels of developments at Ceres Power (CWR:AIM) and Energetix (EGX:AIM) (Shares 17 Jan ‘08, page 8), Ceramic Fuel Cells (CFU:AIM) has signed its own agreement to develop a commercial combined heat and power (CHP) unit for the residential market, with Japan’s Paloma Industries. The CHP unit will run on natural gas and will look to address a Japanese home heating market where some 4.2 million units are sold a year.

Ceramic is also hoping to benefit from Paloma’s distribution experience in the rest of Asia, Australia and the US in the future. Managing director Brendan Dow says that there are no discussions to launch a product in the US at present but that ‘a North American agreement with Paloma is something we would consider.’

Ceramic already has utility partnerships with E.ON in the UK, Gaz de France in France, EWE in Germany and Nuon in the Benelux region. Competition, however, is hotting up in Europe with British Gas owner Centrica (CNA) recently buying a 10% stake in fuel cell CHP developer Ceres to help target the UK market and E.ON, which owns Powergen, also helping Energetix to develop its CHP unit, which is fuel cell free (Shares 17 Jan ‘08).

Dow says that the Ceramic and Energetix units will be addressing different markets and that he welcomes the competition. ‘What we are pleased about is that these utility companies are committed to putting CHP units in people’s homes.’

Shares in the company plummeted last year from highs over 50p to a low of 18.5p but have since ticked back up to 21p on the news.

Shares says: Operating in an exciting area and has solid partnerships in several markets.

by: Susanna Twidale