Waz, I totally agree that the circumstances around both the payment and the Bunbury testing require better explanation from Protean as they came up in announcements recently and quickly, but LOL a yellow wheelie bin ? (I suspect you're being a bit sarcastic there )
The transition from SHE to POW took a huge amount of energy, time and cost (legal, corporate governance, ASX compliance and so on) - the prospectus alone was over 200 pages long and quite a read.
Why go to all that effort if there was never any commitment to wave energy ?
Makes no sense. My impression has been that they have a very real desire to bring new technology into the world that is renewable and that in turn plays a part in addressing climate change. (Not just another miner looking for an alternate business model in a commodity down-turn)
And transitioning away from diesel presents a huge opportunity in certain parts of the world - have a read here (long report sorry) if you have time about how the Maldives has been trying to integrate solar and the challenges :
Skip to the conclusion - page 93 - the author says solar is the "most promising" solution - but in a world that isn't being offered any viable alternatives (yet) in the form of (limitless) wave energy, and an environment where system scale and adaptability are crucial parameters.
Just my opinion but I think the omission of seeking early international and recognised validation of the technology perhaps played a part in some loss of inertia, which would have provided an important yardstick against rigorous testing of the concept in the early stages. Some catching up here being needed - which they have announced they are doing. I keenly wait for more info.
Beyond that I'll stick to my comments in my previous post - the water environs presents complex physics and energy harvesting from it is no walk in the park.
Evidence of this can be found in the 20 year or so history of WEC development around the world - even locally where we see that CWE has not only shifted the point sourcing of power generation from shoreline to the actual devices going from CETO5 design to CETO6 (a big technical change), but also appear IMO to have hedged their position recently by diversifying into micro-grids via their 35 % purchase interest in Energy Made Clean, and the very best of luck to them.
Add to that questions around future grant funding opportunities (I know, another miss) - this only making the journey potentially harder.
Not making excuses though, I have a substantial investment here as others do, and we all want it to succeed.
They retain their vanadium interests which could play a big role in battery production, further reinforcing their long term commitment to the renewables industry in another way.
Anyways, that is as much of a rant as you'll get from me.
GL BC
POW Price at posting:
0.9¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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