This weeks highlights featured headlines from a variety of sources.
ECOtality, Inc.announced that it will provide its ECO bus to tour the State of Arizona. The ECObus is the result of a partnership with Arizona Public Service (APS) company, and will begin its tour of Arizona at today’s Clean Cities Coalition event at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza. During its statewide tour, the public will be invited to step onto the zero-emission mobile learning center and experience hydrogen fuel cell technology.
Air Products and the University of California, Irvine (UCI) held a dedication ceremony this past week unveiling a new 700 and 350 bar (10,000/5,000 psi) pressure capable vehicle fueling station on the UCI campus in front of invited government officials, university and fuel cell industry media and guests, and several automobile manufacturers. The 700 bar fueling station is a first in the United States to be sited at a location with wider accessibility for vehicle fueling demonstrations. The station is the first deployed by Air Products as part of the California Hydrogen Infrastructure Project (CHIP) with the United States Department of Energy (DOE), along with project collaborators Toyota, Honda, BMW and Nissan.
Protonex Technology Corporation,announced that it has been awarded a $3.5 million contract with the US Army Research Office to develop a 250-watt portable fuel cell power source that is significantly smaller, lighter, quieter and more efficient than alternative battery or generator systems. The system will include a methanol reformer and will initially target military applications such as field battery charging and auxiliary power. This contract is the largest Protonex has received to date, and brings the total program value of the Company's secured government development or joint development contracts to more than $11 million.
Pacific Fuel Cell Corp. (OTCBB:PFCE) announced the opening of a 24,000 square foot plant in Willoughby, Ohio to produce fuel cell components. Initial production of bipolar plates is scheduled to begin shortly. The first two press machines, including an 800 ton compression press machine, have been installed and are being tuned up. Initial orders are waiting to be filled.
Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. (Nasdaq: QTWW) announced that it was awarded a contract to expand and enhance its hydrogen vehicle and Mobile Hydrogen Infrastructure (MHI) programs for the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC). The contract will be administered by Aerospace Engineering Spectrum (AES), based in Ogden, Utah. Under this contract, Quantum will complete the development of a 2008 Ford Escape Hydrogen Hybrid, incorporating an advanced hydrogen fuel injection system and ultra-lightweight hydrogen storage system developed by Quantum. This effort will include the development of an advanced hydrogen storage system, fuel injection system, electronic controls, and requisite software required for the Hydrogen Ford Escape Hybrid. The work will be completed by Quantum at its Advanced Vehicle Concept Center in Lake Forest, CA.
Nuvera Fuel Cells, Inc. announced that it has shipped a 125 kW (net) Forza(TM) Fuel Cell Power System to Sacre-Davey Innovations in North Vancouver, BC, Canada as part of the Integrated Waste Hydrogen Utilization Project (IWHUP). The waste hydrogen is being produced by ERCO Worldwide's local electro-chemical processing plant.Forza is Nuvera's product family of large-scale hydrogen power systems. It is a scalable base-load system that converts excess hydrogen disbursed from chemical processing plants into DC electricity. The electricity can then be used in the same facility in a Nuvera patented "closed-loop" fashion, to lower energy costs. This modular system has multi-megawatt capabilities and produces 100 % pollution free electricity in parallel to the existing electric DC circuit.
Proton Power Systems plc ("PPS"), through its subsidiary Proton Motor Fuel Cell GmbH ("PM"), announced an extension to a purchase and cooperation agreement to provide fuel cell stacks to an international technology leader for their 1 to 5KW family of products. The original agreement was signed in December 2005 and this extension follows the successful completion of a number of milestones and is worth approximately 190k Euros. Delivery of the fuel stacks is expected to begin in April this year and will continue for approximately 12 months, at which point a final design will be agreed for commercial volume production.
This week also featured a number of companies announcing changes within their corporate structure.
Plug Power Inc announced that the Company has engaged David Waldek to serve as interim Chief Financial Officer (CFO) following the recent resignation of its former CFO.
IdaTech, LLC, a global fuel cell solutions developer and manufacturer, announced that Mr. Claude Duss has resigned as President and Chief Executive Officer for personal reasons. Mr. Harol Koyama has been appointed as IdaTech's new President and Chief Executive Officer.
Finally in the highlight section of the newsletter, readers will find an interesting story on results of the completion of the the HyICE project
As markets across the country and around the globe turned from flaming red to cool green yesterday, one company's shareholders failed to enjoy the change in portfol-iage. That company: Fuel cell pioneer Plug Power (Nasdaq: PLUG), whose shares continued the free fall begun when the company reported just $1 million in fourth-quarter revenues last week -- down 62% versus last year.
The consequences were summed up quite nicely in the title of Reuters' story on the release: "Plug Power Q4 sales decline; shares hit lifetime low." Need we say more?
Yes, please Fair enough. Then I'll expand on the story. Plug shipped 25 more fuel cell units in Q4 2006 than it had in the previous year. However, 32 of these units were shipped on a "consignment basis" -- which is to say, they're not really sold until they're really sold, if you know what I mean. As such, it's hard to say whether sales improved or worsened last quarter. Likewise, for the year, the 152 units shipped in 2006 were an improvement over the 134 units shipped in 2005 (with the same caveat regarding the consignment portion of the shipments).
Plug's comments on unit installations told a clearer story, if a less happy one. Comparing Q4 2006 to Q4 2005, installations declined from 23 to 14. For the year, they increased by three units -- from 91 in 2005 to 94 in 2006.
Cash burn With commercial operations still looking pretty iffy, it behooves even speculative investors to keep a sharp eye on this firm's rate of cash burn. In this regard, CEO Dr. Roger Saillant advised that in 2007 he intends to "contain total net cash used in operating activities to $45 [million]-$50 million." For those keeping score, that should hold the cash burn close to constant with 2006's $46.1 million in cash spent on operations (which, when you add on $1.3 million in capital expenditures, yielded cash burn of $47.4 million for the year).
The competition Rounding out the fuel cell news, in late February, two of Plug's peers reported earnings. Ballard Power (Nasdaq: BLDP) announced growing sales and a declining cash burn rate. At $51.4 million, it's still burning cash faster than Plug; the good news is that Ballard's burn rate has slowed by nearly 40% in comparison to 2005. Millennium Cell (Nasdaq: MCEL) also claims to have reduced its burn rate (but did not include a cash flow statement in its release, so we can't confirm that).
Meanwhile, FuelCell Energy (Nasdaq: FCEL) won't report its earnings until this Thursday. Let's hope its news more resembles that of these latter two companies than it does Plug's.
What did we expect out of Plug last quarter, and what did we get? Find out in:
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