CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwired - Aug 29, 2013) - Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:STG) ("Sustainable Energy" or the "Company") today announced that it has filed its Consolidated Financial Statements for the Nine Months ending June 30, 2013, along with Management's Discussion and Analysis thereof. The Consolidated Financial Statements and the Management Discussion and Analysis thereof are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.sustainableenergy.com.
Highlights
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Sustainable Energy's platform is emerging as the premium energy storage inverter in Europe, Japan and the United States, based on the power industry's highest round trip battery charging and discharging efficiencies;
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The Company's addressable market is estimated to be between $1.6 billion and $2.8 billion over the next 4 years;
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The Company is on plan in Europe with an exclusive 2-year 10,000 unit supply contract with the German energy storage market leader;
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The Company is on plan in Japan with engagement by several leading electronics firms;
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The Company is ahead of plan in the United States with unanticipated demand for grid interactive back-up power and peak shaving applications;
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Revenue growth is returning with shipments of Bi-Direx platforms for Sonnenbatterie systems in Europe; initial inverter units were shipped to Prosol on the last day of the quarter and have started to ramp during fiscal Q4.
Overview
Sustainable Energy is on plan to position its "Bi-Direx" platform as the premium energy storage electronics solution for residential and small commercial energy storage. Building on proven proprietary technology, the Bi-Direx platform can charge and discharge batteries in these applications with higher electrical conversion efficiencies than any other product or combination of products in the market.
"Energy storage has paradigm changing potential for the power industry, and "smart" high efficiency power electronics are critical to this phenomenon," said Michael Carten CEO of Sustainable Energy. "The feedback to us over the past 100 days is that Bi-Direx is the best power electronics solution for this market. Our high efficiencies are enabled by proprietary technology that is patented or has patents pending in all the world's major markets. Our design philosophy also enables us to lever the efficiency advantage with a highly competitive OEM strategy that offsets the scale advantages of industry incumbents.
"Our strategy is to build long term OEM relationships with suppliers of energy storage solutions - battery manufacturers and energy management service companies - in each of the major markets, who can lever our cost and efficiency advantages to develop value added solutions built around their own core value propositions."
According to London based IHS Research, approximately 4 Gigawatts of residential and commercial non-utility scale energy storages will be installed globally by the end of 2017, roughly 60% of total energy storage. Based on current market prices for energy storage power electronics, the estimated value of our addressable market over this period is $1.6 billion - $2.8 billion.
"Over the past nine months, we have successfully shifted to a more competitive and more focused business model that will drive shareholder value in a market that plays to our most important core value propositions," Carten added. "The change necessarily entailed a significant short term reduction in top line revenues as we re-directed resources to the higher value opportunity. Revenues are recovering in the current Quarter however, and we expect to see strong growth in revenues and bottom line contributions over the next year."
Europe
The Company is on plan to meet its target in Europe. During Q3 2013, the Company executed a 10,000 unit, 2-year exclusive supply contract with Prosol Invest Deutschland GmbH ("Prosol") to supply energy storage inverters for Prosol's market leading Sonnenbatterie residential energy management system. First deliveries of the inverter platforms began in June, less than 45 days after execution of the agreement.
London based IHS Research is forecasting approximately 2 Gigawatts of residential solar energy systems to be installed in Germany alone between now and the end of 2017, with growth accelerating in 2014. We believe that Prosol will maintain its lead in the market, although we expect demand to be choppy in terms of product mix and volumes over the next two Quarters.
Electrical conversion efficiency is emerging earlier than we anticipated as a key competitive metric for energy storage systems. According to our internal analysis, Bi-Direx powered Sonnenbatterie systems have the highest round trip efficiencies of any energy storage system in Europe.
Prosol continues to add distribution channels, recently announcing an agreement with Helion AG in Switzerland.
Japan
The Company is on plan to meet its goal of partnering with one or more of the leading companies in Japan to deliver solar energy storage solutions that capitalize on the core advantages of higher efficiency, lower cost, and ease of integration. The evidence is that competitive solutions in the Japanese market have much lower conversion efficiencies than Bi-Direx, and are more costly and cumbersome.
The response to Bi-Direx in Japan has been positive. The Company is actively engaged with several leading Japanese electronics companies leading to an OEM style agreement that builds around the Bi-Direx advantages to supply higher value-added energy storage solutions for Japan and other export markets.
A parallel goal is to use one of the OEM relationships to collaborate on manufacturing and distributing our proprietary Paralex solar inverter in Japan, which is now well advanced in the certification review for that market. Japan will be #2 in the world after China in solar installations this year and we are already seeing demand for a "made in Japan" solar inverter. We are targeting first sales into Japan during the first half of CY 2014.
United States
Sustainable Energy is ahead of plan in the U.S. Whereas we had anticipated demand in the US to come primarily from micro-grid developers for remote industrial and military applications (See News Release dated May 29, 2013), we are seeing significant interest from battery manufacturers and system integrators to create value-added battery solutions for back-up power and on-site peak shaving applications. The Bi-Direx inverter is quickly gaining recognition within the industry as the premium energy storage inverter, and we are optimistic that we will realize higher product sales than originally anticipated in the back-up power market, beginning in the first half of CY 2014.
The Company is delivering on two sub-contracts with U.S. defense contractors for military micro-grid applications that are proving the value of Bi-Direx in this application. Feedback is that the unique open control architecture, that facilitates system design and flexibility, is a key differentiator, in addition to the higher conversion efficiencies.
About Sustainable Energy:
Sustainable Energy (www.SustainableEnergy.com) designs and manufactures advanced power electronics for distributed smart grid and micro-grid applications. Advanced power electronics are a critical interface between all distributed generation and storage systems devices, ensuring the delivery of high quality alternating current (AC) to the power grid as well as providing utility control over the interconnection and power quality.
Sustainable Energy's bi-directional low voltage energy storage inverter directly connects low voltage batteries to the grid with the power industry's highest round trip (battery charging and discharging) efficiencies. The inverter meets tough utility smart grid standards such as Germany's VDE 4105 that is becoming a global standard and enables full utility control over the battery dispatch and power quality functions.
The inverter's software configurable platform has been designed from the ground up to be easily integrated into power management systems, with the industry's only open industry standard communications software to support a highly cost competitive OEM strategy and allow rapid development of OEM partner product solutions.
Sustainable Energy's platform is based on patented breakthroughs in power inverter design that enable its platform to convert high current/low voltage DC into high quality AC with conversion efficiencies that are materially higher than anything in the market with an inherently lower cost structure.
Forward Looking Information
The reader is advised that some of the information herein may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning assigned by National Instruments 51-102 and other relevant securities legislation. In particular, we include: statements concerning the value of future demand for energy storage inverters; statements concerning the efficiency and cost advantages of our energy storage inverters; statements concerning interest in our Bi-Direx product in Japan and the United States; statements concerning potential demand for Bi-Direx in Japan and the United States; statements concerning the performance of Bi-Direx powered Sonnenbatterie product and statements concerning Prosol's market share expectations for the European market.
Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and involves a number of risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or future events or developments, to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which speaks only as of the date hereof.
Readers are also directed to the Risk Factors section of the Company's current Annual Information Form which may be found on its website or at www.sedar.com The Company does not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking information contained herein to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
