Rossi Learning New Things about the E-Cat with 1 MW Plant Project

I have been noticing that Andrea Rossi has been talking about problems and challenges regarding his work on the 1 MW plant, which is slated to be the first commercial E-Cat plant for a non-secret customer. . The plan had been to launch it this year, but now we are told it could be at least another year before this plant is revealed.

Here is a question that I posted to Rossi on the Journal of Nuclear Physics today:

You have mentioned recently that you have problems to solve — some easy, and some hard. Also you mention that you are involved in ‘difficult’ work. This seems to indicate that the commercial plant is posing a significant challenge for your team.

1. Are you learning new things about the E-Cat now you have to put it under load in an industrial setting?

2. How confident are you in your ability to meet your contractual deadlines with your current customer?

Rossi’s response:

Frank Acland:
Thank you for your continuous attention.
1- yes
2- Our team is very strong, all te bases are covered ( electronic engineering, physics, mechanical engineering and top level blue collars). I have good reasons to hope we will not disappoint our Customer, while I am sure we will give the maximum of our skills.
Warm Regards,
A.R.

The interesting thing to me here is that Rossi admits that there are new things they are learning about the E-Cat now they are putting it under a continuous load. You would think that in all his work over the years with the E-Cat that Rossi would have had a good idea about how it would operate in an industrial setting, but apparently there have been surprises (as with the nickel enrichment in the Lugano test). Rossi talks of this installation project now as an R&D activity also.

Rossi has said that the output of this plant is heat in the form of steam (not electricity generation), and that it needs to run continuously round the clock for 350 days per year. The customer is going to have to be satisfied with things before they will sign off on the purchase. There is apparently a contractual deadline to get everything right, so the pressure must be quite heavy.

I’m not sure that we’ll hear much about the details of this project, and the nature of the problems — so we are going to be in a familiar waiting mode with this situation.

UPDATE: A follow up from me:

Thank you for your responses. Would you say the problems you encounter are increasing as your work continues, or diminishing?

AR’s reply:

One by one, we are resolving all the problems. With patience and dedication, united with the consciousness that if we go through we will have written a page of history.