FuelCell Energy Receives New Order for 4 Megawatts of Its Direct FuelCell(R) (DFC(R)) Power Plants from Marubeni Corporation: Partners Strengthen Alliance as Marubeni Commits to Further Penetrating the Asian Market by:
* Developing Sub-distributor Network
* Creating a Sales and Service Organization
* Initiating a Feasibility Study for an Asian-based Packaging Facility
TOKYO and DANBURY, Conn., April 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FuelCell Energy, Inc.'s (Nasdaq: FCEL - News) Asia-Pacific strategic partner, Marubeni Corporation (TSE: 8002 - News) has placed a new order for 4 megawatts of DFC power plants. FuelCell Energy will manufacture the units and deliver the power plants to Marubeni customers in 2005. Marubeni's order is for 16 DFC300A power plants with megawatt-class DFC1500 and DFC3000 power plants available to accommodate customer requirements.
Including today's orders, Marubeni has committed to more than eight megawatts since 2000 in three separate orders. Five DFC300A power plants are currently operating at four customer sites in Japan -- Kirin's Toride Brewery near Tokyo; City of Fukuoka's municipal waste treatment facility; JAPEX's Katakai natural gas gathering station near Nagaoka City; and two units providing power and steam for Epson Corporation's Ina factory in the Nagano Prefecture.
In addition to placing the 4 megawatt order, Marubeni is committing to expanding its initiatives:
* Development of Sub-Distributor Network -- Marubeni is developing a network of "sub-distributors" in Japan, which will market DFC power plants in designated territories throughout the country.
* Creation of a Sales and Service Organization -- Marubeni is establishing an organization to provide operations and maintenance support services for its customers. These services will include regular scheduled maintenance, repairs, the supply of spare parts and out-of-warranty repair services.
* Investigating opportunities for an Asia-based assembly, packaging and testing facility -- Currently, all DFC power plants sold to Marubeni customers are manufactured in Connecticut and shipped to Japan. Marubeni will study the opportunity to receive fuel cell stack module components from FuelCell Energy in Connecticut and then assemble complete power plants in Asia to be shipped to customers.
"We see strong interest in DFC power plants from the industrial, commercial, utility and municipal market segments," said Takeo Kobayashi, General Manager of Marubeni's New Energies Department. "Marubeni is focused on developing the market for clean, efficient distributed power generation in the Asia-Pacific region. DFC technology is the key to serving these markets."
"Our partnership with Marubeni has been one of mutual productivity and benefit to both companies, and today's announcement further strengthens our commitment to making DFC power plants an important part of the electric power infrastructure in Japan and beyond," said Herbert T. Nock, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales of FuelCell Energy. "This partnership extends Marubeni's and FuelCell Energy's leadership in stationary fuel cells. I am confident that together we will continue to grow the Asian market for our products."
As part of this agreement, the warrant structure has been modified from the agreement established in 2001. The 2001 warrants have been cancelled and reissued as part of this agreement. Marubeni has received warrants to purchase up to one million shares of FuelCell Energy Common Stock. The agreement calls for the warrants to be issued on a graduated scale as order commitments are received up to a maximum of 45 megawatts of fuel cell power plants. The exercise prices of the warrants range from $13.38 to $18.73 and the warrants will expire in 2006. The first tranche of warrants to purchase 200,000 have been earned with this agreement.
Due to the high cost of energy and the focus on eliminating harmful greenhouse gases, Japan is targeting cogeneration from highly efficient generating technologies such as stationary fuel cell power plants. Marubeni has targeted the industrial, commercial and municipal market segments that value high efficiency, while still recognizing the need to be environmentally responsible. Industrial cogeneration, hospitals, data centers and wastewater treatment facilities all have the need for reliable, base load power.
There is a particular focus on the use of opportunity fuels such as anaerobic digester gas (ADG). The current municipal and industrial wastewater treatment market in Japan presents a good fit for DFC products, with more than 2,000 megawatts of potential electricity generation. The initial size of this market segment, and recently passed regulations that provide government support for additional wastewater treatment facilities throughout Japan, represents a sustainable growth market for distributed power generation, including DFC technology. |
