5 Dec 2007 07:00
Embargoed Release: 07:00hrs Wednesday 5 December 2007
Zenergy Power plc (`Zenergy' or `the Group') Institutional Placing to raise ‚£10 million
Zenergy Power plc (AIM:ZEN.L), the specialist manufacturer and developer of commercial applications for high-temperature superconductive (`HTS') materials, is pleased to announce that it has raised ‚£10,000,155 (‚£9,721,911.33 net) by way of a placing of 3,571,484 new ordinary shares of 1p each ('Ordinary Shares') in the Company (`Placing Shares') at a price of 280p with a number of new and existing institutional investors (the `Placing').
Arranged by Ambrian Partners, the Placing will provide additional working capital to expand the Group's commercial activities as it begins to leverage the substantial market opportunities available to it following a twelve-month period defined by a number of key technical advancements and the establishment of channel to market through commercial collaborations. In summary, the Group has achieved a significant level of maturation in all four of its core activities and is accordingly positioned to deploy additional working capital into its commercial activities to generate significant shareholder value through the capture of first mover advantage in global markets estimated to be worth in excess of ¢â€š¬14bn per annum.
The Placing is conditional on the Placing Shares being admitted to trading on AIM. The Placing Shares will rank on their issue pari passu in all respects with the existing Ordinary Shares and have been allotted and issued credited as fully paid. Application will be made for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM, which is expected to be on or around 12 December 2007.
Following the successful Placing, and building on the significant progress achieved to date, it is the intention of the Group to intensify commercial and technical activities in readiness of establishing a leadership position in the quickly emerging global HTS market.
Background and Reasons for the Placing
Over the past twelve months the Group has enjoyed a significant amount of success across all areas of its business as summarised below. Combined, these successes have brought the Group to the forefront of the market for HTS materials and devices and accordingly Zenergy is now positioned to bring to market a range of highly energy efficient products with applications for the production, distribution and consumption of electrical energy.
Paralleling this internal progress, the Directors have been particularly encouraged by the overall advancement of the emerging global HTS market itself. A growing level of commercial interest in HTS technology around the world is driving the emergence of a number of new markets for industrial devices capable of improving the economics and energy efficiency of electrical equipment in a number of areas including; renewable energy production; energy intensive industrial processes; and the establishment of greater stability for national power grids. Zenergy is currently engaged in a high level of activity across all of these emerging markets and has received monetary support from a number of government bodies in Europe, North America and Australia. In conjunction with this public sector support, and driven by the emergence of the commercial HTS market, the Group has also been successful in establishing a number of significant collaborative partnerships with among others, Converteam SAS (formerly Alstom Power Conversion), ThyssenKrupp VDM GmbH and Bƒ¼ltmann GmbH.
Most significantly, the Group crystallised the progress made by both itself and the wider HTS market in September of this year by completing the world's first commercial sale of an industrial scale device employing HTS materials - the Group's proprietary HTS induction heater.
The Group is currently focussed on four main areas of activity in which it has enjoyed considerable success and progression over the past twelve months:
HTS Induction Heaters
Induction heaters are used globally and ubiquitously by producers and manufacturers in the metals industry to heat large quantities of metal bulk prior to carrying out processes of manipulation and shaping that require the metal material to be softened. The softened metal is used for products including installation pipes, heat exchangers, window frames, computer components and profiles for the automotive, aerospace and machine building industries. Built in conjunction with Bƒ¼ltmann GmbH and employing the Group's proprietary HTS componentry, Zenergy's induction heaters operate with energy efficiency levels of over 90% as compared to conventional induction heaters that operate at efficiency levels of between 35% and 45%. This effective halving of electricity requirement is of particular significance when it is considered that, dependent on the country, between 1% and 5% of the total annual electricity consumed in industrialised countries is directly attributable to the operation of heating equipment. In addition to this significant reduction in energy consumption, the Group's induction heaters also deliver reduced heating times, considerably better temperature distribution and increased productivity levels.
The global annual market for the HTS induction heaters is estimated at ¢â€š¬2bn and through the year the Group progressed on a number of fronts in its induction heater programme. In May of this year the first of the Group's full scale induction heaters was successfully tested at its facilities in Rheinbach, Germany. This milestone achievement was followed by the world's first commercial sale of an industrial scale HTS induction heater to industrial aluminium supplier Weser Alu GmbH in September of this year. The Group has since been commissioned by a further global metals manufacturer to carry out design work to adapt its existing induction heater design to work with other heavy non-ferrous metals. This work is on-going and the Directors believe that it will lead to further sales of induction heaters in the coming year, as well as expanding the overall size of the addressable market for the Group. Further details on the Group's progress will be released in due course.
Renewable Energy Production
As global efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels continue to gather momentum the importance of renewable energy as a viable energy source continues. By adopting its HTS materials and expertise, the Group is working on a range of proprietary HTS components to be used in the production of a new generation of renewable energy generators that the Board believes will be capable of reducing the cost of the production of offshore wind power by c. 25%. Through the year the Group enjoyed considerable success within its renewable energy activities that in June saw it secure an exclusive five-year co-operation agreement to jointly develop, manufacture, market and sell HTS generators into the global wind and hydropower markets with Converteam SAS (formerly Alstom Power Conversion).
Since that time, Converteam have evaluated the performance of Zenergy's HTS components and consequently qualified them for commercial use and reported electrical performance, electrical capacity and electrical efficiency levels `exceeding management expectations'. Currently the Group and Converteam are working with E.ON Wasserkraft GmbH to install the world's first HTS hydro-generator in its commercial hydroelectric power station based at Hirschaid in Bavaria, Germany. In parallel with this, Converteam are also working with the UK's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to develop an 8MW direct-drive wind power generator powered by Zenergy's patented HTS materials and components.
As a result of the continuing progress within its renewable energy activities with Converteam, the Group has received in excess of ¢â€š¬800,000 of commercial orders from its partner during the course of this year.
HTS Fault Current Limiters (`FCL')
Comparable to a computer network's `firewall', the Group's HTS FCL is capable of absorbing huge amounts of unwanted and highly damaging electrical power generated by fault currents in national electricity grids without having to interrupt the steady supply of power to downstream grid users. In doing this, the Group's HTS FCL not only protects electrical grid equipment from damaging power surges, but also prevents the common knock-on effect associated with blackouts that occurs when one part of the grid fails resulting in an `over-spill' of power to an adjacent grid. The effects of this `over-spilling' of electrical energy can be devastating and widespread as witnessed in August 2003 during the infamous New York blackouts which began in New York State and spread through Ohio and up into parts of Canada affecting over 50 million people.
Through the year the Group enjoyed considerable technical success within its FCL programme and has been commissioned by the California Energy Commission (`CEC') to install the first HTS medium-voltage FCL in the United States into the electricity grid of California's largest utility company, Southern California Edison (`SCE'). Following the receipt of this $500,000 grant in April of this year the Group was subsequently awarded a further $11m grant in June by the US Department of Energy to develop and install a high-voltage version of the HTS FCL into the electricity grid of major US utility.
Development and engineering work continues in the Group's FCL programme and it is expected that the medium-voltage device will be tested for the first time in the presence of a number of national utility companies during the course of this month.
2nd Generation Wire
With regard to the massive growth of renewable power generation Zenergy is committed to enforce the development of its own proprietary lower-cost production techniques for 2G HTS wires which it believes to be advantageous over alternative methods currently being developed by other industry participants. Having developed this low cost production technique it is the intention of the Group to derive value from its 2G technology within inductions heaters, FCL's and other power applications. Through the year the Group enjoyed considerable success within its 2G programme and in particular with the advancement of its ground-breaking all-chemical mass production techniques and was, in July of this year, awarded an ¢â€š¬825,000 grant by the German Ministry of Economics and Technology in recognition of the potential environmental benefits to the whole power industry represented by the Group's 2G materials and processes.
This governmental support was followed in October by the successful establishment of a 5-year joint development agreement with ThyssenKrupp VDM GmbH, the world's largest industrial supplier of nickel alloy materials, to develop industrial scale supplies of textured nickel tape for the production of 2G wires. Textured nickel tape is a highly specialised material known as a `superalloy' and is being pursued by the HTS industry as the `replacement of choice' for the existing high-cost silver based solutions currently used in 1G HTS materials.
Development of the Group's 2G wire technology and its ground-breaking all-chemical mass production techniques continues and management are aiming to produce a 10m `all-chemical' 2G HTS wire during the course of this month.
-Ends- Further information:Dr. Jens Mƒ¼ller Zenergy Power Plc + 49 22 26 90 60 200 Andrew Tan Hansard Group + 44 207 245 1100 Tim Goodman Ambrian Partners + 44 207 776 6423 Gareth Price / Tom Hulme Landsbanki Securities + 44 207 426 9593 (UK) Ltd. About Zenergy Power plc
Zenergy Power plc is a global specialist manufacturer and developer of commercial applications for superconductive materials. Comprising three operating subsidiaries located in Germany (Trithor), USA (SC Power Systems) and Australia (Australian Superconductors), Zenergy recently completed the world's first commercial sale of an industrial scale HTS device and is currently developing a range of energy efficient applications to be adopted in renewable energy power generation, energy distribution and large scale, energy intensive industrial processes.
About superconductivity
Superconductive materials are capable of conducting electricity without any resistance and were first discovered in 1911 in what was to prove to be one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century.
The global HTS market is substantial and growing, with a number of market studies projecting multi-billion dollar markets for the application of HTS materials and products. The proliferation of the use of superconductor materials is largely being driven by the following key factors:
(a) HTS materials are highly complementary to energy efficient technologies as a substitute for copper
(b) HTS wires have power densities of over 100x that of copper
(c) Current developments are leading to substantially reduced costs in the production of HTS wires and are targeting to be cheaper than copper over the next few years.
(d) HTS applications deliver exceptional energy efficiencies and thus reduced power consumption and running costs
(e) HTS technology is set to play a significant role in reducing CO2 emissions in line with international targets
(f) HTS applications are capable of delivering vastly increased levels of power with increased reliability and reduced material usage
ZENERGY POWER PLC