Fuel cell firm Ceres Power wins role in data centre project

LONDON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Britain's Ceres Power (Other OTC: CPWHF - news) said it will play a key role in a U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . Department of Energy contract awarded to Cummins Inc (NYSE: CMI - news) to develop fuel cells to improve the efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of data centres.

Ceres Power said it would receive up to $2.6 million of the total $4.9 million budget to develop with Cummins a 5kW solid oxide fuel cell modular system, initially targeted towards data centres.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in the company, which is already working on fuel-cell technology for power systems with Honda and for automotives with Nissan, rose more than 11 percent on Thursday to trade at a two-year high of 11 pence.

Analyst Tom McColm at broker Zeus Capital said: "Today's announcement is a great example of Ceres (Frankfurt: C331.F - news) ' management delivering on its global OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partnering model in multiple verticals to exploit the platform nature of the technology."

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Stephen Addison)