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

To: dwight martin who wrote (112)	1/11/2000 1:04:00 PM
From: dwight martin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 783

OK, I overestimated, 800-odd kW-hr seems about right. I guess living in Texas and paying AC bills for 7 months has skewed my judgment.

To: dwight martin who wrote (112)	1/13/2000 2:54:00 AM
From: Howard Hoffman	Respond to of 783

Yes. Fuel cells sound very sexy and a lot of players are looking at the technology. In the mean time, the electric power biz is being decontrolled, with California leading the way. At this time, really efficient production of electricity for the grid beats fuel cells any day of the year. If you want to invest in a great real power company, I suggest you go to the web site for Calpine (CPN). Check them out. Look at their costs. Even if you have to add in a couple of cents for distribution, no fuel cell is close to competing with high efficiency natural gas production of electricity. We are talking cogeneration, combined cycle, and other very straight-forward ways of making electricity production very energy efficient. Calpine has real earnings, with phenominal growth. PLUG is speculation. Yes, someone has made a bundle on the stock, but in the long run, it has to compete with other forms of electricity. Natural gas is cheap, clean, and the gas turbines have benefited by the investment of GE, Siemens, Pratt & Whitney in more efficient turbines, derived from aircraft engines. I am an environmental engineer with 28 years of experience and have done consulting for the Electric Power Research Institute. EPRI has funded much fuel cell research. Sure, it will have some applications, mainly for off-grid or other very expensive locations. Besides all of the cheap nat gas out there, Siemens has developed a process for converting coal to a fuel for gas turbines. The higher PLUG goes, the better a short it will be (I own none, long or short).