LONDON (Alliance News) - Camco Clean Energy PLC Monday said its pretax loss narrowed in the first half of 2015 as it continues to test and validate its energy storage system in preparation for commercial launch in 2016.
The clean energy and energy storage company reported a EUR276,000 pretax loss in the first six months of 2015, narrowing from the EUR1.1 million loss booked a year earlier as revenue almost doubled to EUR8.5 million from EUR4.8 million.
Revenue comprised of EUR4.7 million from its US business, up from EUR2.4 million a year earlier, USD1.1 million from its African business, up from USD800,000 a year earlier, EUR200,000 from its energy storage business, which was slightly down year-on-year, whilst other group activities generated EUR2.5 million, up from EUR1.6 million.
"Our trading results in the first half of 2015, whilst exceeding our expectations, are a clear reflection and vindication of the ongoing strategic focus that has been driven throughout the group in the last three years, shifting away from legacy carbon business, and realigning our efforts on higher margin activity, and the exciting progression within our REDT Energy Storage business," said Chief Executive Scott McGregor.
Camco is working on the REDT storage system, which is a vanadium flow battery that is used to store energy in remote locations or for renewable energy, which are being constructed by major manufacturer Jabil Circuit Inc.
Camco currently has four REDT systems in place with customers which are aimed at testing and validating the technology, with a further eight systems to be delivered in 2015.
The four units already in place comprise of a 1.68 megawatt hour REDT being used on a Scottish wind project, a 240 kilowatt hour REDT for an African hotel that is not connected to the national grid, and a 40 kilowatt hour REDT for a UK solar farm. Camco is hoping for first commercial sales of the REDT units in 2016.
Its Africa Clean Energy business has been focused on trying to target higher margin work and work which can complement the launch of the REDT system next year.
The US Clean Energy business is undergoing an evaluation of strategic alternatives to realise additional value from the US biogas business activities to provide additional resource to enable further investment in Camco's other activities, namely REDT.
At the end of June, the company reported a cash balance of EUR4.2 million.
Camco shares were up 1.8% to 5.09 pence per share on Monday.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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