Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
So I don't think I've brought this up before, now is a good time.
There is a disused mine in Norway which has been converted to a data center. Here are a couple of short videos for you to enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37OKOxJLjH0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN9on73BmSs
Lefdal mine is not the only old mine being used for this, though as you may notice, this is Europe's largest green data center, and yes, ABB are behind it!
Although data centers seem boring on the outside, they are essential to our current lifestyle and a massively growing market. What is interesting is the technology behind them. So this particular Lefdal mine has it's own hydroelectric power supply and uses water from the nearby ocean for cooling. Some of these data centers produce far more power than required (40% as an example), and the heat produced can be used for other purposes.
So if these particular data centers produce more power than required, they don't require an AFC generator in there? Wrong! All of these data centers have multi-level redundancy systems including an array of backup generators - currently diesel. Brain storming with a coffee, I could see potential for using the excess power to produce hydrogen as an example.
With ABB already behind Europe's largest green data center, I'm excited thinking of what ABB and AFC may create to take the next step and create a completely green data center.
I remember posting here last year about how NEL had a successful fund raise and showed us all how it could be done. There were 2 large raises, both at a small discount to the current price, they got some big name investors on board. The share price stagnated for a while afterwards.
What I find interesting is comparing the wording in the news releases. Nel release:
The net proceeds from the private placement will allow the company to pursue larger – and higher volume of projects as well as strategic opportunities. In addition, the company will further build the organization, invest in R&D activities, and fund additional working capital requirements, as well as general corporate purposes.
AFC release: The net proceeds of the Fundraising will be used to support (i) the continued product development of AFC Energy and ABB's next generation high power sustainable electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions; (ii) the development of new power solutions utilising AFC's alkaline fuel cell technology platform, including the high growth global data centre market in collaboration with ABB; and (iii) the continued development of the Company's scalable manufacturing capacity to address possible future growth in system demand.
To me, the AFC release seems far more targeted and thorough. The NEL release still has a bit of wishy washyness to it. Repeating again, AFC don't need a gigafactory, NEL do. AFC have big name backers with products that have a defined market and a(almost) proven need, today. NEL (and others) are still a little more future based. And I'm quite glad AFC don't have any large deals with questionable companies (Nikola).
As soon as orders are placed I can see AFC becoming a big name in this business!
One thing I have noticed, the Der Sack theory of Tradegate seems to have held up, yet again. Falling wedge on close, Tradegate down. One day your theory will fail, and we will have the runaway train we once witnessed :)
Will jump on this thread just to no doubt repeat what may have already been said!
Hydrollujah! Great news. As many point out this raise was at a much higher sp, of course positive, though significant in my eyes is the relatively small discount given compared to the closing price. The 7% (haven't checked exact % discount) off closing price is very similar to other hydrogen companies that had fund raises when they were becoming more professional. I will be interested to see if we find out who any of the other ii's are. Raises of past have given a much larger discount to the annoyance of many pi's here. In my eyes this news is the perfect next step, and I can only see good things from here.
The confirmation that they are targeting the data centre market is music to my ears. Off the top of my head, I wonder if the by product (water) could have any benefit in the cooling process of data centres, especially where cooling may be harder to achieve...
Side note, some Norway babble from me again. Diesel generators are now banned on building sites in the cities where I am, for both power and heating. We have good electrical alternatives being used including the possibility to use heating from a communal system used to heat pavements etc, but this is definitely not the case in many other countries. In short, if it has happened in Norway, it won't be long before it happens elsewhere.
The potential here is great. We've seen big names get behind turning the building sector green, now we can guess who may be first to have a hydrogen powered (or at least partially/backup) data centre.
Logging on I see the usual speculation, some arguing, trader types, some interesting posts and an underlying mood which follows the daily sp movements, so nothing new there!
As I've said I'm not following by the minute any longer, but always check for any news and have the odd internet investigation when I find time. To entertain myself over the years I created a game for myself to playt during the boring/scary/depressing days. I have a few people in Norway I've, shall we say encouraged, to invest in AFC over the years in various amounts. I often receive messages asking "what's going on with AFC?!" when it opens red. I started off small and would give a ridiculous answer, something like the BMW they charged with the prototype EV charger exploded, I would receive a barrage of panic messages before coming clean.
These reasons for the price drop became more and more extreme, and are now mostly a joke with friends that I continue though I sometimes catch the odd person out. I believe the latest official news is the AB was MIA and last seen with 2 camels somewhere in Saudi.
Keep the faith, I feel we are close to some exciting times :)
Hi croq, the power reduction will be more of a tactical decision. The cars running at the higher power had a couple of incidents, they will be testing the car to find the best result. They are still learning the cars so I suspect there will be many changes, and every stage has new challenges. I'd guess they may choose to have a power setting in the middle tomorrow going on the times and data they would have got today. Max power may not give best performance and this desert course looked pretty crazy!
Thanks BB, it's easy to get caught up in silly games on here which pointless and steals space. I only want to share useful AFC information, and right now AFC are giving us more than enough to talk about.
I have some interesting information regarding hydrogen/ammonia shipping which I will share when the time is right. Interestingly while the hydrogen markets corrected and people panicked, the real work that matters increased, more hydrogen news than ever before in the background. It just goes to show that the market only represents a bigger worldwide picture, and of course we are dealing with covid, high oil price etc. Most people follow the money, and as you know that is represented clearly here by the type of posts that appear depending on sp movements.
Great to come on and see the positive sentiment return, so much going on. Adam Bond seems to be more than buoyant, he's flying afc round the world on a hydrogen fuelled cloud!
I avoid the forum and following the sp short term, better for the health. I hope those who panic start to realise that short term market sentiment does not change the future and where we are heading. Either become a trader or invest in what you believe in.
Nice to see my thoughts are shared that AFC have more immediate potential than most of the named competitors that get mentioned. As others say, sit back and enjoy the ride now. If Altaaqa are looking at the future and hydrogen possibilities, we get a good idea that things are moving in the right direction.
All the best
I got tired hearing about the gaps, but there are different types of gaps. This particular gap at 37p was made during a period of good market sentiment in this sector, after excellent news from the company and it also broke through a considered area of resistance on the charts. For these reasons, I see this as being one of the many gaps that may never need to be filled. All things going well, we could see this recent period as a test of previous resistance, and now a positive momentum returning confirming an upward trend.
These are all just words and it's easy to make charts match a pattern once the pattern is made. Happy investing!
Hi jhon, hard days no doubt, I don't try and find reason for it now, I watched another hydrogen related company I hold go up a good deal this morning on good news, only to end heavily down. It's as if the market says, oh, hydrogen is going to have a bad day, fair enough you go red too.
The good days will come again, the worst thing about the (many) red days is how the chat on here can deteriorate, which is a shame as as DerSack said, it's become somewhat of a social hub during the numerous restrictions over the last year or so.
Kids are in bed here and I'm having a drink. Debating whether to let the man United supporter neighbour come and watch the game with English commentary or listen to some tunes.
Boring to repeat, but it is true that it's not a loss until you sell, or a profit. I still believe in everything so I'll take a back seat and allow the hydrogen market to gather a bit more substance over the next period of time (whatever that may be), before the interest returns.
I'm still confident that AFC and others will do well,desoite the hydrogen rally recently, there are so many other companies sitting on inflated valuations. The future is coming, it just doesn't happen over night. I'm in agreement with many others that when the first multi order comes, I'll relax a lot more! Cheers
You'll not lose any credibility Mr. Sack, that's for sure. Completely unrelated to AFC, though I know the clip I will post at the bottom is very popular in Germany on new years, as it is also in Norway, though not in the U.K. I don't know why, but the situation on this board reminds me of this video sketch... Perhaps the "same procedure as last year", the talking to one's self, tripping on the rug though occasionally not, changing one's persona and generally running around in circles.
Hopefully we can all look back at this in many years in black and white and laugh to ourselves, at the end of the day, we are only here for ourselves realistically. I'll not be having a go at any posters on here, not in any posts anyway, I'll only say that CIL truly baffles me, and I have absolutely no idea what 90% of the posts relate to.
Othrwise cheerio Miss Sofie, I'm having a drink, and I may listen to some of Jhonboy's music sugestions whilst doing a bit of an internet catch up on hydrogen related news.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1v4BYV-YvA
We're nowhere near a crash yet, sure many signs may suggest we could have one imminently, or perhaps the fact that everyone expects one could be a sign we won't? If we do have a correction how big do we expect it to be... My guess is 2021 will generally be a bit of an uncertain year market wise, with some winners probably in the second half of the year amongst a return to stability.
If you're looking for reassurance and want to hold, try this article: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-new-wave-of-fearless-retail-investors-could-be-ready-to-pour-170-billion-into-stocks-says-deutsche-bank-11614253899?mod=home-page
If you're looking for someone to help you sell up, maybe sell your holdings and watch from the sideline, until things return to normal possibly at some point.
Side note; woke up, had an email on AFC news, read news with a coffee and was quite happy, thought I'd come on here and bask in the shared happiness of inoorved comms and updates on what's happening behind the scenes, read a few posts and decided to have another coffee and re-read the news release on my own :)
Good signs indeed for the annual report, I'm keeping quiet and avoiding some of the madness here, thought I'd wait until the annual report before commenting. Some UK folk could learn from some of the more calm foreign posters, one of the best selling British exports is the many takes on the keep calm and xyz merchandise, a level of irony can be found :)
Remember when AFC launched their EV charger, many posters thought the EV idea was a waste of time and we'd never see an uptake of EV's. We still know that the future is going greener, I still believe AFC will have a nice role within this new emerging industry. You've got to let the markets do their thing, the world is a crazy place now, many things don't make sense.
People talk about inflated valuations on hydrogen companies but this can be found throughout the markets in different fields. There's a lot happening in the background, just because the hype has moved elsewhere, the real work is continuing at the same pace as it always has, with ABB, Acciona and the many many others.
I'll only become concerned if Adam Bond starts tweeting about Dogecoinn or something similar, but in this day and age, that might give us a mcap of 10 billion!
Hi Garonne, you've got to make that call yourself. I did post on here (against my usual style) that I sold my initial investment at the recent peak, only to buy back some more. I felt I was in a place to say that here after so many years. You need to set your own targets, if greed stops you selling then you only have yourself to blame. You need to decide how much you want invetsed in here, what is your average and what are your targets? We can also learn from our own mistakes, if you are uncomfortable watching the SP retarce after huge gains, you should take some skin out of the game during a rise.
I've made some huge mistakes with AFC in the past, and it has been a terrible investment given the time I've been around here, but I'm happy and I am glad I stayed here now. It's a psychological game, you shouldn't ask someone on here when they would potentially sell some, in the hope you could copy them and then blame them rather than yourself if you timed it wrong. We all have our own lives, our own targets and buy in prices etc etc etc.
Whatever happens, you are the only one who can decide your outcome, and the only one to blame. The reality is it's a 50/50 choice, buy or sell? If I was to give you some advice, it would be to potentially sell a portion of your holding to allow yourself to overcome that mental barrier and see how you feel after you watch the SP for a period.
DW was right in that the hydrogen market is having a bit of a break right now. There have been some big gains, and they are holding well, people will take profit. Have a look at the market, big gains in crypto, mining and oil is even doing ok with the current high oil price.
Money will come back here. Ask yourself which of the hydrogen themed companies have the biggest potential 2021? Many had their time in 2020, what are AFC expecting in the coming months? Many of the markets are hovering around ATH levels, there is still uncertainty around, and some euphoria in other stocks right now. Hang in there, another month or two and things should pick up again, maybe before. If you're brave, sell some and potentially buy back at a lower price, or miss a big RNS that no one saw coming....
It's really taking off now. People who don't get excited by these baffle me, the new Tesla does 0-100kmh in about 2 seconds (not achievable, I've tried their launch control, all 4 wheels spin with anything buy racing tires), nearly 900km range! Ok, this is ridiculously expensive so not for most people.
I'm enjoying planning my summer holiday in country, driving in silence (forget the kids!), the stops to charge are very nice, stretch the legs, have a coffee. This year is the tipping point, by 2023 there is no way the current charging setup can cope.
I know there's a lot of back and forth about what Extreme E will do for the share price, but if nothing else, it shows the world that this technology is available, so there's no excuse for not having charging where you need it. People see hydrogen cars on the news with ITM filling points or whatever, it's not exciting as it's not real. I think Adam will have quite a few more enquiries after the first race.