Ceramic Fuel Cells to start selling home power units:

GREEN energy fans will shortly be able to buy Ceramic Fuel Cells's gas-to-electricity units at Harvey Norman.

They won't be on special and will be available initially only via Harvey Norman's commercial division in NSW and the ACT, but the move is a major step forward. Green retailer Neco in Melbourne was appointed last year.

Gas to electricity is all about a fuel cell about the size of a domestic dishwasher and can whack out "twice the electricity needed to power the average home", says to a joint announcement yesterday.

We won't all be buying more than one straight away, as the cost is about $55,000. However, John Harrison of Harvey Norman Commercial said last night that there had been significant interest from government bodies and organisations with specific energy requirements. "Just to put it in perspective, that's around $10,000 less than a photovoltaic system with a similar output," he said, adding that such a system might require more roof space on a commercial building than was physically possible.

"You can bundle it in with photovoltaics," he said, adding that there had been interest from hotels, unit developers, aged care homes and other institutions with a higher power requirement than can be supplied by photovoltaics alone.

Andrew Neilson of Ceramic Fuel Cells said his company had so far sold "just under 50 units", of which about a dozen were so far in operation. Of those, more than half were in Germany with two in Japan and two in Australia, he said.