Submission + - Andrea Rossi's apparent cold fusion success (wired.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: Has cold fusion arrived in the marketplace in the form of a 1 MW plant? Wired.co.uk has an article that debunks the accusations of fraud by pointing out Andrea Rossi's scam-inconsistent requirement that the 1 MW plant customers be "qualified," large companies (who have lots of attorneys and legal jargon in contracts), who first validate the technology for themselves before the purchase is complete. On October 28, in Bologna, Italy, the first plant was tested and sold for to an undisclosed customer who was satisfied with the demonstration of 479 kilowatts of continuous power during a self-sustaining mode that ran for 5.5 hours before they turned it off. The present one-off price is $2000 per kW; but once mass produced, Rossi expects that price to drop to $100/kW — ten times cheaper than coal or natural gas power; without any radioactive feedstock or waste. Has the holy grail of energy arrived? Join the discussion that is beginning to percolate through the mainstream press.