It appears that Andrea Rossi is focusing most of his efforts at the moment on ensuring that the 1 MW thermal plant he is building is fit for purpose. His fortunes as an industrialist depend largely on on the success of this first pilot unit. If it is a success it will likely be hailed as a huge breakthrough in energy technology — if it fails, then Rossi’s name and reputation will be tarnished and his whole enterprise could be in serious jeopardy.
What do we know about this plant? From what Rossi and others have revealed there is quite a lot of interesting information about it. Here are some of the key things we know.
- It is being built in Florida by Leonardo Corporation, a company Rossi owns jointly with his wife, Maddalena Pascucci.
- The plant is being installed in a shipping container and when completed will be transported to Xanthi, Greece where it will be used as a demonstration unit, and provide power for Defkaklion Green Technology’s Hyperion factory (Rossi’s first customer).
- The public opening of this plant will be in the last week of October 2011. Rossi has said recently that he is on schedule. Invited guests will be able to see the plant in action.
- The plant is made up of 300 4 kW E-Cat units, giving it a maximum output capacity of 1.2 MW. The spare capacity allows the plant to provide a continuous 1 MW output while individual units are down for maintenance and recharging purposes.
- This plant is a working prototype based on Rossi’s own E-Cat models, not Defkalion’s Hyperion products.
- While Rossi will guarantee that the plant will produce at least six times the amount of energy that it consumes, the electrical input for this plant may be very small. In Rossi’s own words “The 1 MW plant, probably will work mostly without energy input, I suppose, because we are resolving the safety issues connected.” http://www.journal-of-nuclear-physics.com/?p=501&cpage=2#comments
If there are any key points that I have missed, please feel free to send your suggestions, and I will add to the list!