Ceres and Centrica agree on CHP

Crawley-based fuel cell group

has signed an agreement with British Gas, trading as

, for the trial and advance order of residential combined heat and power (CHP) technology.

Subject to the approval of Ceres Power shareholders, Centrica will buy shares in the company worth around £20m - nearly 10 per cent of the Ceres’ issued share capital.

This agreement follows the successful recent demonstration of Ceres Power's wall-mountable fuel cell CHP unit, which was one of the key milestones of Ceres’ current CHP programme with British Gas.

During the initial phase, which is expected to be completed in 2011, Ceres will complete the design of a cost-effective mass-market version of the CHP Product and, together with British Gas, conduct commercial in-field trials with residential customers and commence initial sales. British Gas will support the rollout of CHP Products, providing training, installation, servicing and logistics.

British Gas has also placed a forward order to purchase in aggregate a minimum of 37,500 CHP products over a four-year period, conditional upon the successful completion of the initial phase.