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Technology Stocks : Plug Power (PLUG) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony@Pacific who wrote (86)	1/8/2000 4:09:00 PM
From: Gary105	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 783

More on the economics. The average house consumes about 500 kw -hr per month. In high cost areas, electricity is about 10 cents per kw-hr. So the consumer spends about $50/month or about $600/year on electricity. With the plug power solution the consumer still needs to spend $ on fuel - gas at $5.50/MM BTU at the residential level. 500kwhr x 3412 BTU/kwhr x 12 months x 1/.37 efficiency x $5.5/1000000 = $300/yr So the annual operating savings with Plug Power = $600 - $300 = $300/yr But Plug Power is currently marketing a unit that puts out 7 kw. Assuming mature cost of $1500/kw = 7 x $1500 = $10,500 Would you be willing to be locked into a $10,500 up-front investment to save $300/year, especially when electricity prices are dropping and there is no guarantee the annual savings will exist in the future? If the unit is leased it will most likely still cost over $1000/year (lease costs) wiping out all savings. The Plug Power unit is oversized, but a high degree of oversizing is required because the peak load requirements of residential units are much larger (3 to 4x) than steady state usage.