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Technology Stocks : FCL - FuelCell Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: A.J. Mullen who wrote (355)	2/19/2000 6:38:00 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Respond to of 407

Fuel cells allow the conventional power grid to become the back-up I agree that the grid can be a good backup. It can also act as a storage device in lieu of batteries. If one chooses to generate their own electricity...surplus can be sold to the utility. I believe there is legislation in some states enabling the sale of juice to the utility by the little guy. This would probably be more economical than oversizing a generation unit or maintaining a large bank of batteries as would be necessary with solar cells. Technology for switching between sources already exists. I use a small inverter to switch between batteries, an alternator and the grid. Computers on the inverter continue working when the source is switched. However FCL's contracts have been with utilities (and the Navy and?) and it would be my guess that this direction will continue. Those that specialize in electrical generation are more suited to the installation and maintenance of such facilities. I doubt a hospital would want to be responsible for the maintenance of their fuel cell...nor do I believe that FCL wants to be in that business. The responsibility seems to fall most naturally with the utilities. I would envision an entity such as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (FCL has a pending contract with LADWP) setting up and maintaining the FCL fuel cell for hospitals and the like. I believe another good use of the FCL fuel cell would be the generation of power from the methane produced in land fills. Much of this gas is either flared off or allowed to escape into the atmosphere. If one believes that there is a big market for home fuel cells then I believe PLUG would be a better play...Ballard for automotive cells. My money is with FCL as it seems to be technology that has already arrived. The question is how well FCL can execute? Zeuspaul