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Gold/Mining/Energy : Global Thermoelectric - SOFC Fuel cells (GLE:TSE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ddl who wrote (5741)	11/14/2002 12:28:52 PM
From: Stephen O	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6016

If those numbers are correct, it makes you wonder why they haven't done it earlier.

To: ddl who wrote (5741)	11/14/2002 1:21:36 PM
From: Gulo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6016

I would look at it more closely, but you are on the right track. The utilities payback will be much longer than 2 years because the capital cost is not the only cost they have to cover. 10 years is more realistic. As for deciding to use a fuel cell, the economics depend on whether you go off grid or supplement the grid. For example, most of my electricity bill is not the power itself but the delivery and franchise charges. I pay 4.9c/kwh for the power, but the total tab works out to 17.3c/kwh. (I don't use much electricity compared to the average family.) If I go off grid, anything less than 17c/kwh will be worth it. If I stay connected, the fuel cell will have to make electricity for less than 4.9c/kwh to make economic sense. For remote power applications, the threshold jumps dramatically because you would have to pay about $1000 per pole to string a power line. GLE has much more experience (i.e., marketing) in remote power generation than any of the other fuel cell pure plays. The nice thing about small remote units is that the ancillary equipment (inverter, fuel and air management, etc.) becomes a bigger part of the cost. This makes expensive fuel cells a relatively smaller piece and makes it easier to commercialize. -g