Last Sunday we reported about a rumor that Volkswagen would build small power plants for homes. Now the Volkswagen EcoBlue Home Power Plants are official. Together with Eco energy supplier LichtBlick, Volkswagen wants to build a massive cluster of small natural gas powered VW EcoBlue powerplants.
The EcoBlue systems are supposed to be networked via cellular and get activated when the most power is needed in the network - earning the most money for the kWh. 100,000 Volkswagen home powerplants would generate 2,000 Megawatt which would be equal to the capacity of 2 Nuclear Power Plants.
The natural gas powered small block heat and power plant also heats water, so you do not need an additional system for that.

Whether or not the "SwarmPower" has a future now lies in the hands of the consumer. The first VW Power Plants are planned to be installed in Spring 2010 in Hamburg for a fee of 5,000 Euro (~$7,300).

I think this is a very cool project. Volkswagen is actually really using a car engine inside the BluEco power plant.
More details on the Lichtblick site (German).