Ideal Power Inc (IPWR)

[ffoggy]

Reading material for the weekend...

Lazard just recently came out with a report which is interesting reading and quite relevant to our little company. I haven't been able to dig into it too much yet, but I thought I'd share it with the rest of you.

https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-storage-analysis-10/

Some snippets:

“Although in its formative stages, the energy storage industry appears to be at an inflection point, much like that experienced by the renewable energy industry around the time we created the LCOE study eight years ago,” said George Bilicic, Vice Chairman and Global Head of Lazard’s Power, Energy & Infrastructure Group. “Based on our analysis of storage technologies and our experience with LCOE, we expect to see rapid declines in the costs of energy storage.”

Highlights from the study include:

Even without subsidies, certain storage technologies are already cost-competitive with certain conventional alternatives (for example, lithium-ion batteries for certain power grid support applications). Other storage technologies are close to being cost-competitive in other applications, and costs are expected to decline in coming years.

The transformational scenarios envisioned by some renewable energy advocates – such as residential energy storage systems paired with solar panels to take consumers “off the grid” – are still very expensive without subsidies.

If industry projections materialize over the next five years, cost-effective energy storage technologies will have increasingly broad applications across the power grid, such as providing an alternative to conventional gas-fired peaking plants in certain areas.

(emphasis added by myself)

I find it interesting that Lazard seems to agree with IPWR management that residential implementation has a ways to go before it pencils out financially. Focusing on industrial applications seems to be the way to go here.

IPWR is still flying under the radar to most. I only expect the SP to remain at these levels for another quarter, maybe two. As such, I consider it a gift and am continuing to add to my meager position when able.

Cheers to those of us who found this company during the "formative stages" of the energy storage industry, and to those who have the patience to see it through.

Good luck to all.

ffoggy