As Andrea Rossi’s energy catalyzers are nearing full validation and certification, people are starting to ask more specific questions about pricing and power of the units. Fortunately, Rossi is answering some of those questions.
On the Journal of Nuclear Physics forum, a poster, Stefano, noted that a normal gas heater for a large building such as a hospital costs about $50,000. When you consider that the E-Cat still needs power to operate, Stefano suggested that the price of the 1 MW plant needs to be no more than four to five times the cost of a gas heating unit in order to make it an affordable choice for most applications.
The 1 MW plant has been initially speculated to cost about $1.5 million USD. Any drop in price would be a significant change, especially when keeping in mind that they indeed produce much more energy than they intake. Considering that nuclear power plants only produce 1.5 times the amount of energy input into them, the reported gains on the E-Cats should be much more attractive.
On the same matter of E-Cat plants, it seems they’re gaining more and more momentum in the present developments of LENR devices.
Just a couple of days ago, on August 19th, Andrea Rossi said that Leonardo Corp. was going to focus its marketing to the 1 MW plants for now. According to Rossi, this is the marketing decision that
“…gives to Leonardo Corp. the maximum economic momentum, considering our present structure.”
This is the plant that has already been sold to the anonymous military customer. Rossi has received orders for more of these units, and this is the power plant that Col. Fioravanti has been observing. Fioravanti also verified the functioning of the Hot Cat, recently, creating quite a stir when he provided a photo and information about the unit, without Rossi’s permission.
Evidently, there is still a problem with protecting Rossi’s intellectual property. He said there is a “situation” about this matter, and referred to those who have:
“just mock ups (empty boxes) which they will immediately fill up with our technology as soon as cheap E-Cats will be in the market: this has been their strategy from the beginning.”
Rossi says that Leonardo Corp.’s marketing of the 1 MW unit gives them the ability to select their customers, thereby, having some control over their intellectual property even after the sale. This may be through a confidentiality agreement, or some other such safety measure.
This could cause worries about the release of the domestic E-Cat, but Rossi addressed this problem, too. He is confident that Leonardo Corp. will be able to hold onto the market even after his technology is copied. Part of this confidence is due to the fact that Leonardo Corp. will produce the domestic models at such a bargain price that competitors won’t be able to beat them, and, none of his competitors are anywhere close to competing with their own domestic device:
“When the domestic Ecats will be certified the numbers will be enough big to allow us a big scale production, so that our prices will be enough low to defeat the competition even after they will be able to copy us. About the chance of our competitors to reach us and compete with us, without copying us, from what I saw recently, they all are lightyears far from being able to produce something able to produce real energy: they are making paper airplanes, we are manufacturing Boeing 707.”
It’s good to see the marketing plan. Many of those who follow Rossi’s progress have worried about theft of his intellectual property, but Rossi has that covered. Once the E-Cat is released for marketing, it will be done with thorough understanding of the existing market and the potential copy-cats, who will take the first chance to copy the technology.
