Zenith Energy Share Discussion Threads

[dcroston] 09/1/2012 11:21

It would have been great to have secured an order or two but it was never going to happen until we completed the scaling up. ZENS's problem is they are a small fish in a very large pond but they do have a valuable piece of IP. A JV would be an ideal solution with a recognised Utility company, that may well be in the pipeline.

Finacially, they are on a steady footing. They have approx £5.5m cash and cash burn of about £400k per month with no debts. MCap is approx £4m.

If they scale up successfully then I think they'll sign off on a JV and that will be the springboard to better times ahead. It will be very difficult to go it alone.

We have a few weeks to wait for a more full update. I'm looking forward to it.

[mudbath] 09/1/2012 11:06

errollc,Your glass is half full.

"I understand it's the size of a London bus, costs $15m and they can't even give it away..."

Love it !!

ZEN shares UP TODAY ??

[errollc] 09/1/2012 10:48

I'm as annoyed as anyone and want this to work too....but we'll just have to wait for the 10th Feb and see what lies in store. Hopefully something will be signed by then to make the statement exciting...

[errollc] 09/1/2012 10:38

DD, the Siemens product has been touted around for ages...I understand it's the size of a London bus, costs $15m and they can't even give it away...

[duncandisorderly] 09/1/2012 08:23

I was hoping that one of the big boys would of bought us out eventually but if they are developing their own with the HTS wire then it's a pipe dream.
Yet another kick in the nuts!

[mudbath] 07/1/2012 17:56

Make that Rack Jobinson then then.

[mudbath] 07/1/2012 11:17

Meanwhile the competition continues to seek the "holy grail";an effective FCL :-
"Paris, October 13, 2011 – Nexans, Siemens and American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC) today announced the successful qualification of a transmission voltage resistive fault current limiter (FCL) that utilizes high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire. This marks the first time a resistive superconductor FCL has been developed and successfully tested for power levels suitable for application in the transmission grid (138 kV insulation class and nominal current of 900 A).
As electrical demand increases, more power generation must be added to the grid. The addition of generation capacity also tends to increase the destructive over-current available when a fault occurs on the power system, taxing the capabilities of installed equipment, such as circuit breakers. Faults can be caused by equipment failures, severe weather, accidents or even acts of willful destruction. Such faults can damage major, expensive components and, if not cleared quickly, can lead to lengthy, costly outages.
Used in a substation, FCL's acts as current surge protectors for the power grid. A resistive FCL consists of low inductance superconducting coils that work in parallel with a shunt reactor. Unlike other approaches, this type of system has low impedance, meaning it is virtually transparent to the grid until it "sees" a fault. At this point, the superconductor coils transition from a conductive to a resistive state to suppress the fault current.
The system that was tested by Nexans, Siemens and AMSC proved to reduce fault current levels by more than 50 percent. This smart grid system can strengthen the grid by reducing the destructive nature of faults, extending the life of existing substation equipment and allowing utilities to defer or eliminate equipment replacements or upgrades. The resistive nature of this superconductor-based FCL can also improve the ability of the high voltage transmission power grid to remain stable, reducing the likelihood of more widespread system collapse.
The collaboration between the three industry leaders resulted in a solution that has virtually no electrical impact to a large electric utility grid under normal operation but limits currents in response to a downstream short circuit, limiting damage and the stress that other grid components experience.
The FCL development and testing was done as part of a project cost-shared by industry partners and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and was aimed at accelerating the modernization of the U.S. electricity grid using superconductor technology. Nexans, Siemens and AMSC jointly designed, developed and tested the FCL. It features a proprietary Siemens-developed, low inductance coil technology that makes the FCL invisible to the grid until it switches to a resistive state. Nexans designed and built the high-voltage terminations and their connections to the FCL module in the cryostat. AMSC provided its proprietary Amperium™ HTS wire for the system."

My view is that should ZEN's full scale MFCL prove effective then Zenergy would lose its independence (to the huge benefit of shareholders)before one could say sputnik.

[errollc] 06/1/2012 15:05

DD, I agree....we have to get something in the next month or so...at the very least some good news on 10th Feb.

[keepltup] 06/1/2012 10:35

The German business had liabilities of €5m. Where do you think they would have got money to pay off those liabilities if they simply shut down the business and kept the IP ? They had to put the whole of the busines into admin for them to effectively absolve themselves from those whopping liabilities.

You need to think like a businessman.... not a scienece loving geek. It's all very nice talking about the technology and how wonderful it is... dont you think the current CEO contemplated the scenario of keeping the IP ?.... but obviously as a businessman he would have been confronted with the massive €5m liability to pay off.... and exactly where would he have found that money ? Hence he had to do the ruthless thing and put the whole of the subsidiary into admin.

Simplistic scanerios are all very good.... but in reality they are not as straight forward as one contemplates... especially not in business.

[mudbath] 06/1/2012 10:21

Well said errollc.
As a 6 pence (maximum) entry level guy,I look forward to the ZEN/MFCL project developing positively over coming months,with RNSs' serving to bolster the share price on regular intervals.Like you,should the price weaken whilst we wait,then I will keep buying.

[acta_topup] 06/1/2012 10:17

Zenergy was ahead of it's time - there is no question of that. Tough measures needed to be taken and I applaud Cleaver for that. I, for one was hugely in favour of shutting down the German subidiary and focusing on the NS MFCL market as I believe it has huge potntial. We need a saleable product and fast. But I am sorry, you don't give away your prized intellectual property for nothing, perhaps a pipedream but honestly tech that could change the way the world works. Sell the buildings, let the people go, sell the tangible assets, shelve the R&D, but HOLD ON TO THE TECH. Surely this is correct?

[keepltup] 06/1/2012 10:11

Previously the 'business' was run by scientists... big mistake.

[duncandisorderly] 06/1/2012 10:05

At least it has got us talking again,lol.

[acta_topup] 06/1/2012 09:54

yes, but why not keep it for better times?

[p o n a] 06/1/2012 09:52

"with time and further investment"


That's the crux of it.... those two commodities they didnt have.. especially the latter.

[acta_topup] 06/1/2012 09:49

The fact is PONA that with time and further investment the HTS wire could have been commercialised. I agree not in the short to medium term. But in the long term yes. With sales from the NS MFCL Zenergy and a sound financial footing would have been in a much better position to partner/JV with a larger company to develop and commercialise this extremely promising technology. The clients would have ranged from electricity generators of all kinds, grid owners, wind turbine/hydroelectric + other renewable energy companies, heavy industry/manufacturing - the size of the market boggles the mind. Old energy sources are running out, and buidling greater efficiency into the energy supply system is becoming more urgent all the time. Any JV would have been on far better terms than a negligible royalty scheme. I am sorry if I was thinking in the long term, but that's how I view my investments. Whilst yes the German subsidiary administration is not new but the fact that they have given away the crown jewels for nothing is new - we didn't know that until now. And as I said, this demonstrates just how desperate the company was to survive.

[p o n a] 06/1/2012 09:37

By the way, it was no point in keeping technology no matter how good it is, if it cant be commercialised. ZEN is not a research venture (which unfortunately was how it was run by the previous management) - it's a business. The management rightly needed to get rid of those parts of the business that they believed couldnt deliver commercial success in the short/medium term... if they hadnt done that, the business as a whole would have been bust by now as it would have run out of cash.

As for the larger scale trialling, I suspect that is what the February results will include (amongst other things).

[p o n a] 06/1/2012 09:32

acta.. your frustrations are understandable... but you are commenting on a news story that happened months ago (German subsidiary administration in October 2011). Today's update on that event isn't new news.