First the positive news: VRB Power finally shed some light on the progress of its wind energy-storage project in Ireland as part of a previously announced deal with Tapbury Management Limited. An independent feasibility study that was jointly commissioned by Tapbury and government agency Sustainable Energy Ireland found that using VRB’s flow battery technology to firm up wind power at the Sorne Hill Wind Farm would generate an internal pre-tax rate of return of 11.7 per cent and a post-tax return of 17.5 per cent for an equity investor. “In our experience, the current market for investments of this nature would find these returns attractive,” the report states. “We have no doubt that both banks and equity investors would be enthusiastic about such a project in the event that the technology is thoroughly tested and proven on a commercial scale.”

Based on the findings of the report and analysis of the optimal system design, Tapbury is increasing the size of its VRB storage system from the original 1.5 megawatt x 8-hour system to a 2 megawatt x 6-hour system. This increases the value of the contract to $9.4 million (U.S.) from $6.3 million. “This study demonstrates the economic viability of our systems for wind farms such as Sorne Hill,” said VRB chief executive Tim Hennessy in a statement. “This is largely due to our ability to enable wind powered generation to match many of the characteristics of conventional ‘base load and peaking plant’, thereby allowing wind power to be dispatched in a similar way to conventional generation.” It will be interesting, now, to see how quickly Tapbury and VRB move forward on this project, which Hennessy has touted as a “blueprint” for future projects across Ireland and other parts of Europe.

Now the negative news: ATS Automation has officially withdrawn its initial public offering of solar subsidiary Photowatt Technologies, citing “market conditions.” Notice they don’t say “poor market conditions,” because the market isn’t really that bad. What’s bad about this is ATS’ management, which has completely fumbled the ball on this much anticipated solar IPO. These guys have made one wrong call after the other and have let several windows of opportunity close on them. They dragged their feet on this IPO, they did a miserable job at marketing it, and throughout this whole process we’ve seen the solar business itself deteriorate — i.e. Spheral Solar has been written off and is unlikely to result in any future product for the company. Expect a shareholder coup out of this one. Word on the street is that some institutional shareholders are quite pissed at how things have turned out. And it’s a shame, given the opportunities in the solar market and the true potential of Photowatt.

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