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

To: Fisherman1 who wrote (47)	2/4/2000 2:56:00 PM
From: Erik T	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 83

You do NOT have to buy the fuel cell!! The utility will!! That is something I just do not understand. I am not saying it won't happen, just that I do not understand why a utility would put fuel cells in its customers' homes. Will the utility put a fuel cell in every single home it currently serves? If the investment makes sense for one, it would likely make sense for most all of their customers. Would the utility then dismantle and throw away its turbines which it has spent so much money on, including transmission lines? The utility had better do that for less money than I am currently paying for electricity. The capital costs alone would preclude this from ever happening. How about GE? Are they willing to let their enormous dominance in natural gas turbines fall by the wayside and become merely a distributor for Plug Power residential fuel cells? I suspect if GE thought this technology would make their turbines obsolete, they would have bought the company or the technology long ago, and not settle for being just one of perhaps many distributors. I would pay a premium NOT to have brown or black outs or surges in voltage! The general public, however, has never given any indication, that I know about, that they are willing to pay more for just about anything, except perhaps an over-hyped stock. What would you pay to not harm the environment Carbon monoxide emissions about 25X higher than turbines. On par NOx and unburned hydrocarbons. I argue that fuel cells are no better for the environment. In fact when you count in all the service trips to the homes each year, increased auto emissions make it even less attractive overall. (But now I am splitting hairs.) The whole thing just does not make any sense to me. Special niche markets I can see. A market large enough to justify current valuation I cannot see. Erik (IMHO)