20th Dec 2010 07:00
Press Release | 20 December 2010 |
Acta S.p.A.
("Acta" or "the Company")
3.9 MW Additional Photovoltaic Project Consents Received
Financial Update
Acta S.p.A. (AIM:ACTA), the clean energy products company, is pleased to announce that it has received conditional project consent, subject to obtaining a favourable technical report from the Toscana Regional Water Management Department, for an additional four applications totalling 3.9 MW from its own developed, Italian photovoltaic project pipeline. Subject to receipt of the report, which is expected to be released with a favourable opinion in due course, the Company's portfolio of consented projects and their respective value, based on prevailing market rates for the sale of project consents alone, will be as follows:
No. of Projects | Capacity (MW) | Value of Consents | |
Previous consents received | 9 | 8.10 | €2,430,000 |
New consents received | 4 | 3.90 | €1,170,000 |
Total consents received | 13 | 12.0 | €3,600,000 |
Acta is developing a substantial pipeline of identified projects through to consent which the company has now increased to 41.6 MW, an increase of 68 per cent on the 24.7 MW of projects previously disclosed within the Company's Interim Results released in September. Of this pipeline, a total of 12.0 MW has now received approval (including 3.9 MW with conditional approval). The Company estimates that its total project pipeline, including consented projects and applications currently in progress, has a potential consent-only sales value to Acta of up to €12.5 million.
Acta is currently in late stage negotiations in order to complete the sale of up to 15 MW of the Company's consented and to be consented PV projects before the end of the Company's financial year on 31 December 2010. Consent-only sales are high margin revenue streams.
Acta's strategy is to develop high quality consents which can each be sold individually at a high margin, with the intention, where possible to cross-sell full EPC services to the acquiring developer, either via the Company's wholly own subsidiary, ActaSol, or via its joint venture SolGen with specialist PV installer Fedi Impianti. Accordingly, the Company aims to capitalise on the significant progress made in authorisations being sold this year by converting these into EPC contracts during the first half of 2011.
During the second half of 2010, due to certain operational difficulties including unusually poor weather conditions, the Company has experienced a delay in the delivery of its EPC contracts to SPF Energy. These contracts are now expected to be delivered, and recognised as revenue, in part during 2010, with the remaining revenue value being recognised during the first half of 2011. The increased gross margin to be realised through the sale of additional authorisations by the year end is however expected to make up the shortfall in margin arising from the deferment of EPC revenues into 2011. There will therefore be a change in Acta's 2010 revenue mix, which will see a reduction in overall revenues, but it is expected that this change in mix will be neutral at the gross profit level.
Based on the advanced negotiations for consent and EPC sales which the Company expects to complete prior to 31 December 2010, Acta remains confident of meeting profit expectations for the full year.
Paolo Bert, Chief Executive, commented: "I am delighted to announce that not only has Acta received further project consents in our PV pipeline but also that this pipeline has increased substantially in overall size. Acta continues to increase its presence in the Italian PV market, achieving increased authorisations with the aim of selling a significant portion of these in 2011."
- ENDS-
For further information please contact:
Acta S.p.A Paul Barritt, Chief Financial Officer
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Tel: +39 050 644281 www.actagroup.it www.actaenergy.it
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Altium Adrian Reed / Phil Frame |
Tel: +44 845 505 4343
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Media enquiries:
Abchurch Communications Limited Heather Salmond / Mark Dixon / Justin Heath
| Tel: +44 20 7398 7729 www.abchurch-group.com |
About Acta S.p.A.
Acta S.p.A. is a developer and manufacturer of a range of clean energy products. Its product line includes market-leading compact hydrogen generators (electrolysers) which produce pure, dry and compressed hydrogen in a way that is easy-to-use and completely safe. The Company is also extensively involved in the Italian solar photovoltaic market through its photovoltaic business, ActaSol, and is committed to integrating its award-winning electrolysers with renewable energy sources. The Company is currently in the process of delivering a €32.2m (10.6MW) installation contract to SPF Energy through its joint venture company, SolGen, and is developing a substantial pipeline of project consents.
Acta's cost-competitive electrolysers are based on its proprietary, inexpensive environmental catalyst and hydrogen conversion technologies. These products help overcome the barriers to the adoption of fuel cells, most notably the lack of a local hydrogen infrastructure.
Acta's low-cost hydrogen generators represent a unique breakthrough in electrolyser technology. They can operate using mains power or intermittent renewable energy, and produce clean, dry hydrogen already at pressure for use in fuel cell and other applications. This unique combination of features avoids the system complexity and energy cost of further cleaning, drying and compression of the hydrogen, resulting in a simple, compact, low-cost and highly efficient system that is ideally suited for energy conversion and storage applications. In such applications, which include battery replacement and renewable energy storage, low cost and high efficiency are critical to commercial viability, while hydrogen compression is essential for the energy density of the system. No other water electrolyser currently on the market offers this combination of benefits.
Acta is focusing on delivering its products to markets with high volume demand for high-value environmental solutions (transport, UPS, energy and leisure). It is accelerating the commercialisation of its products via partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), distributors, and agents in these sectors, and intends to drive down production costs at high volume via contract manufacturing.
Acta is marketing its electrolyser product range to early adopters through its energy products division, Acta Energy. This division's objective is to ensure, through facilitating the widespread adoption of commercial and domestic fuel cell products, that Acta's hydrogen generator becomes a familiar industrial and domestic appliance.
Acta S.p.A. is based near Pisa, Italy, and was admitted to trading on AIM in October 2005.
www.actagroup.it www.actaenergy.it
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