From Q2 of 2010 RheinEnergie will operate the BlueGen system in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany. RheinEnergie will evaluate the BlueGen unit for potential future rollout to RheinEnergie customers.

About the size of a dishwasher, each BlueGen unit can produce twice the electricity needed to power an average home, with the surplus electricity sold back to the grid. BlueGen also produces heat, to make enough hot water for an average home.

Since late 2009 Australian-based Ceramic Fuel Cells has received orders for 10 BlueGen units from customers in Australia, Japan, Germany, and The Netherlands, including a recent order from German utility EWE and Dutch gas utility Gasterra. Ceramic Fuel Cells has also deployed fully integrated mCHP products with leading energy companies and appliance manufacturers in France and the UK.

Last October Ceramic Fuel Cells opened its fuel cell stack manufacturing plant in the Industriepark Oberbruch, in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany.