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AFC Energy boss says "keep the faith"
By Harriet Mann | Fri, 11th September 2015 - 10:45
AFC Energy boss says "keep the faith" After its meteoric re-rating earlier this year, AFC (AFC) has gone from bombed-out AIM reject to a stockmarket darling. The alkaline fuel cell company has turned the technology used in space missions into a commercial power supply after unveiling a new, accelerated timeline at the end of last year. With the technology under its belt and its pipeline beefing up, it's no surprise the shares surged by as much as 771% this year.
But the group hasn't been immune to global market weakness, although boss Adam Bond assures investors that the firm has little exposure to China. AFC's shares have had a rough ride over the last couple of weeks, losing 44% of their value from July-highs at over 60p, no doubt some of that due to profit-taking. They're down 30% in the past ten days.
"The share price has been hit quite hard over the last couple of days for reasons we don't really know," chief executive Adam Bond told Interactive Investor. "I think the market was wondering whether there was something going on they didn't know about. All is still on plan; there is no reason for this fall that we are aware of. Keep the faith."
Since we first met with the newly appointed CEO last December, Bond has been pushing AFC to achieve each of its 11 milestones, introduced to accelerate the firm to commercial production. Targeting 1 gigawatt (GW) of capacity by 2020, the group is on track to have its 240 kilowatt (kW) German Power Up producing by the year end. It's also signed three commercial deals in Korea, Thailand and Dubai before the half year, for 50 megawatt (MW), 10MW and 300MW plants respectively.
"We remain confident that the scope of the company's pipeline, being an expected 1GW of capacity under development or in operation by the end of 2020 will be delivered and indeed, most likely exceeded," said the company.
Bond has kept his foot on the gas, and it's paid off. AFC signed its first commercial power purchase agreement with the local utility company Stadtwerke Stade at the end of July and its first KORE fuel cell system achieved operation in Germany.
"The intention is not to drive a profit [from its Stadtwerke PPA], the intention is not to make millions of dollars," explains Bond. "In ter=ms of revenue we are probably looking at tens of thousands of euros per annum, so this is not going to move the share price and it is not designed to. Given that we are producing power, we might as well sell it and generate some revenue. But operating a fuel cell gives us the opportunity to learn how to operate a fuel cell in a commercial power market."
With his eyes set firmly on the final two milestones, AFC reckons it will have sold its first power to the grid within the next month, with its 240kW KORE plant operating at full capacity by the year end. Of its targeted 1GW capacity, the group also has its 360MW pipeline and Bond has bought a new commercial director on board to transition these agreements into binding contracts.
"We don't want to go down the path of having a gigawatt of memorandum of understandings (MoUs) and have not delivered anything. It becomes one of the typical AIM tricks where you pump the share price but don't deliver anything. I don't think that adds any value to us, so it's getting that balance between delivery and pipeline development."
Still, the boss is confident AFC will be profitable by the end of the 2016 financial year, although he notes that as the number of opportunities grow, so will its cost base. The group received monthly derivative swap payments from Lanstead Capital, which the group will continue to receive for another eight months, and has £3 million cash in the bank. To expand, it will need more money, and there a number of options AFC is considering, including strategic partnerships, licence agreements or, of course, coming to the market.
While it wants to keep its intellectual property under wraps, the group is in talks with manufacturers to outsource some of the building process. Bond doesn't want to rush the decision, but hopes an agreement will be made by the end of the year.
"We are being very aggressive in our go to market strategy. We are creating timelines that are very tight, but we are delivering against all of them at the moment. When you set timelines you create expectations and the challenges then become how to deliver against that timeline. We are working bloody hard to hit all of our milestones, and so far so good."
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10 September 2015 - AFC Energy PLC
Progress Update
Highlights
· AFC remains on target to deliver on each of its two final Milestone's at Stade, namely Milestones 10 and 11, in accordance with earlier timeframes
· The Company continues to develop its commercial pipeline of opportunities with its current and prospective partners internationally
AFC Energy plc (AFC.L), the industrial fuel cell power company, is pleased to announce the following progress update. AFC can confirm that at this time, following the successful commissioning of the KORE system in Stade, Germany on 31 July 2015 and the associated power output achieved at the time of commissioning, it remains on target to achieve Milestones 10 and 11 of the 11 Milestone programme announced to the market on 8 December 2014. These Milestones, including the generation and sale of power into the German electricity grid, and for the first time, generation of the full nameplate capacity of the KORE system (240kW), are expected to be achieved in accordance with earlier announced timeframes in 2015. The Company's staff and subcontractors are currently on site in Stade finalising works necessary to deliver Milestone 10 and at this time, there is no reason to suspect this will not be achieved within the announced timeframe.
The Company also wishes to confirm that it continues to make progress in the development of its fuel cell catalyst and at this time, has seen further recent improvements in the power output generated from the cells as compared with that currently being trialled in Stade; this provides further confidence that the AFC fuel cell will be in a position to achieve its targeted capacity output of the KORE by the end of 2015.
Furthermore, ongoing dialogue is occurring with existing and prospective commercial partners and at present, we hope to be able to make further updates to the market on the progress across these opportunities over the coming months. We remain confident that the scope of the Company's pipeline, being an expected 1GW of capacity under development or in operation by the end of 2020 will be delivered and indeed, most likely exceeded.
Mr Adam Bond, AFC's Chief Executive Officer, said: "At this time, we wish to reassure shareholders that AFC remains on target to deliver on its key milestones announced in December 2014. We will provide further updates to the market on the KORE system at Stade and other commercial developments in the near future."
Intelligent Energy hails 'transformational' £1.2bn India fuel cell deal
UK company to provide power to 26,500 mobile masts in India through Essential Energy subsidiary
By Will Nichols | 02 Oct 2015
Intelligent Energy's £1.2bn deal this week to power thousands of phone masts in India will prove "transformational" for the company and the fuel cell industry as a whole, according to chief executive Henri Winand.
The UK-based company has entered into a long term contract to supply power to more than 27,400 phone masts, marking a major step up from the two smaller deals it signed with Microqual and Ascend Telecom Infrastructure (ATL) last year.
The deal will see Intelligent Energy switch out expensive and polluting diesel engines that are required to power the masts in the absence of reliable grid electricity with clean running fuel cells, selling the power through its wholly owned subsidiary Essential Energy.
Supporting phone masts is particularly important in emerging economies, where large amounts of financial transactions are conducted through smart phones and losing signal when the power goes can mean losing business.
Winand expects the deal will "prime the pump" for licensing the technology, which he insists can drive emissions and cost savings when deployed at volume. Ultimately, it could provide a solution for a large proportion of India's more than 425,000 mobile phone masts.
"The further you get away from the grid, the more the cost of power goes up - that's where you can introduce new technologies," Winand says. "India has a huge gap between grid availability and reliability and what people really need. On average cell towers [in India] are without power for eight hours so you need diesels chugging along. That's a lot of energy off-grid where the customer today pays 10 times more than grid price."
Intelligent Energy has been playing the long-game in India, first deploying fuel cells in the country 2011 before picking up the deals with Microqual and ATL. The company now has around 400MW under contract, when in January last year it had nothing.
There have been mishaps along the way, of course - window-sized filters from the fuel cells were whisked away to act as mosquito guards in windows, while the local wildlife has also proved a challenge. "We learned to put bollards around the cabinets after we had an incident where a camel-drawn carriage reversed at great speed into one of our fuel cells," Winand says. "Amazingly enough, the fuel cell was at an angle but still working."
The company has also looked at other opportunities to embed itself in communities, teaming up with Welsh company Hydro Industries to power water purification technology using excess electricity generated by its cell mast fuel cells. Around 720 million of India's 1.25 billion population lack access to clean drinking water, according to some estimates, while UNICEF says around 100,000 people die of water-related illnesses each year, with waterborne diseases costing the Indian economy $600m in lost production and medical treatment.
Providing reliable power to support businesses dependent on mobile phones alongside clean water has had a "phenomenal" reception in India, Winand says.
Targeting such a huge market has also allowed for economies of scale that helped it reduce the cost of its fuel cells. The same scalable technology has been turned into a charging solution personal and supplied to vehicle manufacturers.
Winand sees both applications as an extension of the increasing distribution of energy - all of us want to take our phones and vehicles with us without being tied to a grid connection. Convenience is key, he argues, we could all drink from a tap but still shell out more than petrol for bottled water.
Intelligent Energy's Upp charger, originally targeted at the African market but launched in the UK last year, is squarely aimed at the convenience market. It provides a week of power for any USB device through reusable cartridges. A slightly smaller Upp 2 is in the pipeline and Winand has his sights on bypassing the needs for cords altogether and putting fuel cells inside phones and laptops - potentially as soon as the end of next year. The company has also purchased a disposable, but fully recyclable, fuel cartridge from the maker of Bic biros.
In 2010, Intelligent Energy and Suzuki debuted a fuel-cell powered scooter. Two of these were picked up in the last 12 months, during which the company's revenue rose from £3.5m to £27.4m and it completed a £55m IPO. This year, Toyota will bring its Mirai fuel-cell powered sedan to UK shores, while Hyundai's ix35 fuel cell is already available. But without supporting infrastructure, can these cars make any impact on the market?
"In eight years, we had contracts with two car manufacturers, then in 10 months an extra two," Winand says. "What is that telling you?"
With car manufacturers on board, mobile applications in the pipeline and a "transformational" contract to provide stationary power across the subcontinent, Intelligent Energy is demonstrating that hydrogen power is finally here to stay.