A microgrid is a local energy grid with control capability, which means it can disconnect from the traditional grid and operate autonomously. With centralized local power generation, businesses and/or communities can have a say in how energy is generated and distributed. And they just may become the great equalizer between consumers and the electrical companies.
The Rise of the Microgrid Microgrids are part of a growing trend toward “distributed energy,” power that’s produced independent of a traditional utility. Distributed energy is used by its producer, but is sometimes also sold to a utility and put back onto the general grid. In other words, electricity flows two ways, not one. Microgrids are well-suited to university campuses, corporate research parks, military bases and other insular environments that want to run on their own energy from start to finish. But more than that, microgrids are making their way to neighborhoods, office buildings, and beyond. The increasing adoption of renewable power sources have made distributed power much more practical. It’s hard to imagine generating energy for standalone neighborhoods or communities using natural gas or coal. Fossil fuel-based electricity requires complex plants and refineries that cost billions of dollars and serve millions of buildings. Rooftop solar panels and clusters of wind turbines on the other hand can successfully generate enough energy to keep the lights on in just a handful, a few hundred or a few thousand homes. Renewables may not be able to meet the needs of entire cities today. But they can reliably serve people who live off the grid, or who want to declare independence from major utilities. According to a research report from Markets and Markets ("Microgrid Market by Grid Type Global Forecast to 2022"), the microgrid market is estimated to reach USD 34.94 Billion by 2022, representing a CAGR of 10.9% between 2016 and 2022. Drivers include falling renewable prices, especially solar PV cells, low gas emissions, as well as a growing number of rural electrification projects in Africa and APAC.
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Thermal Energy International Reports Revenue Growth of 82.4%; Gross Profit Up 87.3% for Fiscal 20169/20/2016 This morning, Ottawa-based cleantech company, Thermal Energy International (TSX-V: TMG) reported its fiscal 2016 year end financial results. Highlights included:
“Fiscal 2016 was a strong year for both our heat recovery and GEM businesses. Our revenue rebounded, increasing more than 82% and resulting in the second most profitable year in the history of our company. While hospitals and food and beverage customers were the largest sources of revenue for the year, we continue to see applications for, and orders from, a variety of other sectors. Additionally, as we look ahead to fiscal 2017, we have a healthy order backlog of approximately $7.3 million, up from $5.9 million a year ago.” Revenue for FY 2016 increased 82.4% to $12.4 million compared with $6.8 million in FY 2015. Sales of heat recovery systems increased by 108.0%, while sales of GEM condensate return systems increased by 57.7%.
Gross profit for the year increased 87.3% to $6.8 million compared with $3.6 million in FY 2015. The gross profit expressed as a percentage of sales was 54.8% in FY 2016 compared with 53.4% in FY 2015. EBITDAS for the year was $564 thousand compared with negative $2.0 million in the prior year, representing an improvement of $2.6 million. The Company has net income of $259 thousand for the year compared to a net loss of almost $2.2 million in FY 2015. Adjusted operating cash flow for the year was $710 thousand versus negative $1.4 million the year before. For more information on Thermal Energy, visit their website at www.thermalenergy.com and be sure to check out our special On The Radar feature here. Canadian cleantech company, Thermal Energy International (TSXV: TMG), announced a $500,000 hospital order this morning for its GEM venturi steam traps. Converting over to GEM steam traps is expected to provide the hospital with fuel and maintenance savings of approximately $282,000, resulting in a project payback of under two years. The GEM traps are also expected to reduce the hospital’s carbon emissions by 1,085 tonnes per year. >> News Release << “This is our third significant hospital order in the last eight weeks for a combined total of more than $2.4 million. Hospitals consume vast amounts of energy. Our hospital customers see the value of becoming more environmentally sustainable and seek out savings opportunities that include using energy more wisely. By implementing our energy efficiency solutions, additional resources can be reallocated for core medical services including staff and equipment, while also contributing to a healthier environment through reduced emissions.” - William Crossland, President & CEO of Thermal Energy. The increased energy efficiency and reliability of GEM steam traps mean short paybacks and permanent energy savings with no deterioration of those savings over time. The life cycle cost of the GEM steam trap is significantly lower than for conventional steam traps.
Unlike the traditional mechanical steam traps that will be replaced at the hospital, Thermal Energy’s venturi orifice designed GEM steam traps have no moving parts to wear or fail and come with a ten-year guarantee. Several case studies demonstrating the proven benefits Thermal Energy’s products have provided to hospitals can be found on the Company’s website at www.thermalenergy.com/hospitals. Hospitals' budgets are constantly under pressure. Programs have been cut, staff laid off or replaced with lower wage employees. Nurses are over-worked. Waiting times continue to increase. But wait, what if instead of cutting staff and essential services, hospitals became more energy-efficient? That's right - instead of cuts to critical areas, hospitals could cut their energy bills using existing technologies. And the energy savings that can be realized are substantial. Hospitals are among the most energy-intensive facilities. In terms of Btu per square foot, for example, inpatient health care facilities are the second most energy-intensive facility type across the United States, according to the Energy Information Administration. Just what makes them so energy-intensive? Well for starters, hospitals are open 24 hours a day and are occupied by hundreds or thousands of employees, patients, and visitors. They tend to have sophisticated heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems to control temperatures and air flow. Moreover, many energy-intensive activities occur in hospitals: laundry, medical and lab equipment use, sterilization, food service, refrigeration, and computer and server use. Being proactive with energy management can generate opportunities for savings. Reducing energy consumption results in a dollar savings on utility bills. For example, an organization that has installed on-site renewable energy (and has retained ownership of that energy) could sell its Renewable Energy Credits to a utility that needs to meet Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). Another savings example is installation of light fixtures that use LED or CFL bulbs, which can save both energy and maintenance costs.
Some of the possible improvements at the structure level are replacement of burners and use of stack economizers on boilers (15% to 20% of the energy used in a boiler plant is lost up the boiler stack), installing a cogeneration (or combined heat and power) system, converting mechanical steam traps over to venturi orifice steam traps, and more. Just by converting mechanical steam traps over to venturi orifice traps such as the GEM Trap can result in a 10% reduction in fuel costs. Again, we're talking about existing, proven technologies that can help hospitals save money by reducing their fuel bills while also lowering their greenhouse gas emissions. Take for instance, Thermal Energy International --- their energy efficiency solutions can increase the efficiency of a hospital's heating and steam system to as much as 95% with typical project paybacks (for their combined technologies) within three to five years. With as much as 50% of a hospital's total budget being directed towards energy spending, clearly there are some opportunities to be had. OTTAWA, ONTARIO – July 5, 2016 – Canadian cleantech company, Thermal Energy International (TSXV: TMG) is targeting the attractive cogeneration market by combining its proprietary FLU-ACE heat recovery technology and engineering expertise with existing power generation technologies to provide the highest efficiency combined heat and power (CHP or cogeneration) solution available.
The Company will initially be targeting some of its key corporate accounts with whom they have strong relationships as well as specific regional markets where attractive incentive funding is available for the design and implementation of cogeneration projects. About Thermal Energy International Inc.
Thermal Energy International Inc. is an established global supplier of proprietary, proven energy efficiency and emissions reduction solutions to the industrial and institutional sectors worldwide. We save our customers money and improve their bottom line by reducing their fuel use and cutting their carbon emissions. Our customers include a large number of Fortune 500 and other leading multinational companies across a wide range of industry sectors. Thermal Energy is also a fully accredited professional engineering firm, and can offer advanced process and applications engineering services. By providing a unique mix of proprietary products together with process, energy, environmental, and financial expertise Thermal Energy is able to deliver unique and significant financial and environmental benefits to our customers. Thermal Energy's products include; GEM® - Steam traps, FLU-ACE® - Direct contact condensing heat recovery, and Dry-Rex® - Low temperature biomass drying systems. Thermal Energy International Inc. has offices in Ottawa, Canada as well as Bristol, U.K., United States, Italy and China. The Company’s common shares are traded on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) under the symbol TMG. For more information, visit www.thermalenergy.com. The first three months of 2016 saw the United States electrical grid add 70 times the amount of new energy capacity from renewable sources than it did from natural gas. During this three month span, nine new wind power projects provided 707 megawatts of capacity, followed by 44 solar projects adding 522 megawatts of capacity, biomass projects bringing 33 megawatts, and hydropower adding 29 megawatts. This compares to only two new natural gas projects providing 18 megawatts of generating capacity. No new capacity was added to the grid from coal, oil, or nuclear power generation.
This record uptick in renewable projects coming online happened despite sharp declines in oil, coal, and gas prices that supposedly would protect the supremacy of fossil fuel generation. Government policy has certainly has had, and will continue to have, a role to play. Last December's Paris climate summit witnessed the U.S. pledge to lower its greenhouse gas emissions 28% by 2025. President Obama’s Clean Power Plan to reduce GHG emissions and state renewable energy mandates has prompted utility companies to increasingly invest in wind and solar farms. OTTAWA, Ontario, May 3, 2016 -- Thermal Energy International Inc. (TSX-V: TMG), a global provider of energy efficiency solutions to the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors, today announced that it has received an order valued at approximately $1,015,000 from a leading food products business for the supply and installation of one of the Company’s proprietary FLU-ACE heat recovery systems. The order is expected to be fulfilled and revenue earned over the next six months.
“This order represents another example of our sales focus on customers with multiple needs that can be met with Thermal Energy’s proven solutions," CEO of Thermal Energy. “We first sold GEM steam traps to this customer in January of 2015. Not only did that GEM conversion exceed the customer’s expectations and generate savings faster than the project’s proposed payback period, it opened the door for this latest order. Our heat recovery technology is expected to generate even more savings for this customer and provide a project payback of under two years." The FLU-ACE heat recovery system and GEM steam traps at this site are expected to generate combined savings of approximately $671 thousand annually, resulting in a combined project payback of just 1.6 years. In addition to the significant energy savings, the two technologies are expected to reduce the site’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 2,621 tonnes. That is equivalent to the annual emissions from 552 automobiles or the carbon sequestered by 2,148 acres of forest. For more information on how Thermal Energy’s proprietary heat recovery systems have benefited food and beverage companies around the world, including several case studies, please visit the Company’s website at www.thermalenergy.com/food-and-beverage. About Thermal Energy International Inc. Thermal Energy International Inc. is an established global supplier of proprietary, proven energy efficiency and emissions reduction solutions to the industrial and institutional sectors worldwide. We save our customers money and improve their bottom line by reducing their fuel use and cutting their carbon emissions. Our customers include a large number of Fortune 500 and other leading multinational companies across a wide range of industry sectors. Thermal Energy is also a fully accredited professional engineering firm, and can offer advanced process and applications engineering services. The Company’s common shares are traded on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) under the symbol TMG. Crystal Green Energy Corporation is an emerging green technology company currently developing Combined Heat and Power (CHP) panels (which they call Solar Optic Modules) for residential and commercial applications.
Their patent-pending Luminosity Lens concentrates the sun’s rays on an extremely compact (1×1.1sq.m) panel, delivering over 600W CHP per panel. Compared to a traditional solar panel operating at around 15% efficiency, the SOM boasts a remarkable efficiency close to 40%. A byproduct of this revolutionary design is a substantial amount of thermal heat. That heat could be used to decrease your domestic hot water or heating system costs. Unique Properties:
The Sudbury, Ontario-based company is hoping to have SOMs available on the market by early next year. While the technology has potential commercial and industrial applications, the company expects the first users to be residential customers and small business owners. At this time, Crystal Green Energy is a private company. For more information on Crystal Green Energy, visit their website at www.crystalgreenenergy.com and follow @cgenergycorp on Twitter.
GUELPH, Ontario, April 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the world's largest solar power companies, today announced that it has connected an additional six solar power plants, totaling 39.4MWp to the grid, bringing its total fleet of solar power plants in commercial operation in the United Kingdom to approximately 103.0MWp.
The six solar power plants were connected to the grid in March 2016 under the Renewable Obligations Certificate (ROC) program. "We are very pleased to announce that our portfolio of operating solar power plants in the UK has now reached over 100MWp," commented Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar, "We remain committed to leveraging our industry-leading position and expertise in solar project development to meet the growing demand of clean solar energy in the UK and around the world." About Canadian Solar Inc. Founded in 2001 in Canada, Canadian Solar is one of the world's largest and foremost solar power companies. As a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules and a provider of solar energy solutions, Canadian Solar has a geographically diversified pipeline of utility-scale power projects. In the past 14 years, Canadian Solar has successfully deployed over 14 GW of premium quality modules in over 90 countries around the world. Furthermore, Canadian Solar is one of the most bankable companies in the solar industry, having been publicly listed on NASDAQ since 2006. Source: Canadian Solar Inc. Potentia Solar is a leading independent solar power producer in Ontario. Through partnering with school boards, Potentia is installing solar rooftops while making much needed roof repairs for schools across Ontario, while helping educate future generations on the benefits of solar power. Potentia Solar is focused on developing, owning and operating solar photovoltaic energy systems for rooftop and ground installations. Their proven technology and demonstrated track record of delivering solar-powered electricity into Ontario’s energy mix enables communities to lessen their reliance on fossil-based fuels. For more information on Potentia Solar, visit their website at www.potentiasolar.com. |
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