Ceres said that the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) grant will be used towards the development and commissioning of automated fuel cell manufacturing machinery and processes in Ceres’ product facility, which is due to begin operations in summer 2007.
Ceres’ product facility will enable the company to validate key fuel cell manufacturing processes prior to the company’s planned investment in a mass manufacturing plant in 2008.
Ceres said that its strategy is to reduce risks in its mass production and product development programs. The company hopes that through this concurrent approach, trials of its combined heat and power generation products will benefit from incorporating fuel cells manufactured using commercially viable scalable processes.
Jeff Alexander, executive director of global competitiveness at SEEDA, said: We are pleased to be able to support a world-class business like Ceres Power whose unique technology has the potential to address the long-term issues of energy savings, emissions reductions and fuel poverty in both private and public sector housing.
