CCE/REDT10 Jun 2015 10:27
Camco aiming to become a world leader with revolutionary energy storage system
Share
June 10 2015, 8:03am
Camco is on the verge of something pretty significant, according to its broker finnCap, as it aims to become a world leader in large-scale liquid energy storage
Camco's technology can be used to store energy generated by wind turbines.
Camco Clean Energy (LON:CCE) is a business in transition – and unrecognisable from the company that effectively hit the buffers in 2012 when the carbon trading market ground to a halt.
It is on the verge of something pretty significant, according to its broker finnCap, as it aims to become a world leader in large-scale liquid energy storage.
Okay, it is a firm in the early commercial phase; but if the technology takes off then we’ll be hearing a lot more about Camco over the next 18 months.
And in American contract manufacturer Jabil Circuit, which manufactures the iPhone for Apple, it has a partner with enough financial muscle and scale to make some very lofty ambitions a reality.
Camco’s REDT technology can trace its evolution back to NASA in the 1970s. It uses an electrolyte of vanadium and sulphuric acid to hold an electric charge for weeks and sometimes months at a time.
While this liquid energy storage has been around for something like 40 years, Camco is one of only two companies to have developed it to a level where it is commercially viable. The other is Cellstrom, which is now owned by the German green energy specialist Gildermeister.
It can be deployed to garner energy from renewable sources such as wind or solar that can be fed into the grid as and when it is needed and not just when it is blowing a gale or during a heatwave.
It can also be used to replace back-up generators that might be used by hospitals or by the telecommunications industry.
In fact Camco and Jabil are targeting four separate markets – utilities, telecoms, diesel genset replacement and the renewables industry.
The idea is the technology will be cheaper than what’s already out there and in most instances this REDT is likely also a more efficient method of storing power.
At this point it must be pointed out there is more to Camco than energy storage – although the other two businesses won’t be long-term drivers of equity value.
Its African business, which used to advise on financing renewable energy projects, is now a fund manager that has won one mandate and expects to land more as the year progresses.
In the US it has a renewables arm, which doesn’t appear to be part of Camco’s long term focus.
In fact in recent deals it sold California carbon credits that will bring in up to US$3.9mln and will help with its short term cash needs.
And, based on its last market update, it is also looking at potentially selling its American biogas arm, which should bring in funds enough to see it through to break-even.
“It has to be stre
Sign In
Follow the stocks
