The ability to deploy and recover large buoys is all well and good, but at what cost??? As you know, there are two inputs which govern cost per MWh. CAPEX and OPEX.
At present the CAPEX is unclear. At a guess and reading between the lines it’s costing ca.30M for Albany for 1 MW. You can build a 15MW solar for that money.
What are the costs to maintain the unit? CETO 5 was in the water for 14,000 hours. To pull these goliaths out of the water each year due to the intense corrosive nature of the environment would be an astronomical sum. Has CCE even built in a structured operation and maintenance program so they can be truthful about lifecycle costs which govern cost per MWh?
How many times do they have to be replaced over a 20 year period? Every five years? Every ten years? Who knows. Shareholders don’t because again more information is being withheld.
Then comes the big question. How many MWh per annum is CETO 6 going to produce??? What happened to the results of the recent wave tests?? Yet again more information withheld.
CCE won’t release this information because it will demonstrate very clearly that CETO is uncompetitive against mainstream solutions and sadly won’t be cost competitive for decades. At that point investors and government will run for the hills and this lifestyle operation ceases.
How can CCE even get through this next period? We are told from revenue from Northam and GIMG. Yet we don’t even know how much revenue is being generated. Yet again more information withheld.
Shareholders are being asked to trust management on numbers they themselves don’t even know because the Northam solar farm is a merchant facility. By its very nature no one knows what will be paid out on an annualised basis on the spot market. But management must have a guide. What were the numbers they sold to IBA? Why aren’t shareholders being told this most basic of information???
As for further government grants coming from ARENA or CEFC. I doubt it. The smell that is coming from this group stinks now. The inner workings are about to come under a lot of scrutiny and I would suggest more tax payer funding for a company that is operating outside ASX governance will be out of the question. Infact i would not be surprised if money for Albany gets pulled at the rate this is going.
This is about to get very real and very interesting. I wouldn’t want to be in the boards shoes right now. And if I was a recently exiting board member that has made off with a lot of cash and a lot of shares, well I suspect it’s not over for you yet either.
CCE Price at posting:
1.4¢ Sentiment: Sell Disclosure: Held
