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Italian Startup Begins Operations

(12/13/2001)
December 14, 2001–-Ansaldo Fuel Cells SpA (AFCo) a spin off of Italy’s Ansaldo Richerche, and a part of the Finmeccanica Group, has begun operations effective December 1.,
AFCo, was de-merged from Ansaldo Ricerche (an high tech engineering company, previous R&D center of Ansaldo, Italian leading manufacturer of electricity generation equipment over the past 150 years), from which it inherits all fuel-cell related technology, patents, rights and key personnel.
According to a company statement, AFCo’s mission is the industrial production and commercialization of Fuel Cells, and particularly Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells power plants in the mid-size range (0,1 -30 MW)
Focus will be initially concentrated on the "Series 500" unit, designed as a market entry with a power up to 500 kW.
AFCo, although a young company, benefits from over 20 years of investments in fuel cells development by Ansaldo Ricerche.
Among the achievements to date are:
Market leadership: the only large scale Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell program based in Europe that achieved critical mass with almost all the technology developed internally or through research partnerships
100 kW "proof of concept" MCFC plant (stack and system) successfully demonstrated Over 60 million € invested to date on the MCFC development program Successful co-operation and long term relationship with key industrial and technological partners.
Significant portion of R&D programs funded by leading Italian and European institutions Development and demonstration program for the first commercial products "Series 500" (500 kW class) already in place. Key contracts signed or in advanced stage of negotiations for the majority of the programmed demo plants.
After having successfully developed the base technology and demonstrated a 100 kW proof-of-concept plant, AFCo is now focused on the development and demonstration of its first commercial MCFC units. AFCo's goal is to reduce cost of production and to meet the technical performance characteristics needed to start the commercial phase.
AQFCo has already put in place a program for the construction of several demonstration units with different technical characteristics and a variety of fuels (Natural Gas, Biomass derived Gas, Landfill gas, Syngas and Diesel) employed in the 100-500 kW power range.
AFCo is also planning the construction of its first multi-megawatt unit starting in 2004. the Company expects to invest significantly during the demo phase and plans additional investments for the scale-up of the initial production capacity to meet commercial sales, for the demonstration of the multi-megawatt units and for further product development.
AFCo's commercial sales are expected to begin by 2005.