With this release, we bring out a snapshot on three clean energy companies from different geographies across the globe. The recent transition to clean energy sector in an effort towards climate change has enabled many young performers accelerate their operations. It has recently been noticed that investments in clean energy production is also attracting more businesses and creating more number of jobs. Let us look at the following companies and see whether these can make it to a good chunk of the pie in the future. 

CropEnergies AG

CropEnergies AG (CE2) is a European manufacturer of sustainably produced bioethanol catering to the fuel sector. The use of a highly efficient production process and a system enables CE2 to reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by up to 70% across the whole value-added chain against the traditional methods based on the use of fossil fuel. The technology particularly involves processing of raw materials into high quality protein food and animal feed products. Through this, the company manufactures about 1.3 million cubic meters of bioethanol per year from cereals and sugar beet.
 
Strong performance in third quarter leading to a better guidance for the financial year: CropEnergies reported that its revenue grew to EUR 215 million in the third quarter against earlier year of EUR 168 million on the back of restart of the production plant in Wilton, UK, by which CE2 has increased the bioethanol production from 618,000 to 735,000 cubic meters. As a result, CE2 revenue grew to EUR 565 million in the nine months as compared to EUR 558 million in the corresponding period previous year. In the third quarter, the food and animal feed volumes produced also surged. However, due to the lower proceed for bioethanol, food and animal feed, the third quarter’s operating profit (EUR 59 million) was slightly lower than that of the prior corresponding period (EUR 63 million). The EBITDA in the third quarter is EUR 87 as compared to EUR 89 in the previous year. Despite these shortcomings, CE2 has upgraded its forecast for the current financial year and now expects the revenues to be between EUR 760 million and EUR 790 million against the earlier guidance of revenue in the range of EUR 670 million and EUR 720 million. The operating profit is expected to be in the range of EUR 70 million to EUR 85 million against earlier guidance in the range of EUR 50 million to EUR 80 million. However, few concerns have now been prevailing in the industry with regards to the climate and energy policy measures presented by the European Commission late last year. These particularly relate to decreasing the share of biofuels obtained from crops to a maximum of 3.8 per cent in 2030 from 7 per cent in 2021. Until now, CropEnergies’ stock has rallied over 40.9 per cent in the last one year (as of January 20, 2017).

Aurora Solar Technologies Inc

Aurora Solar Technologies Inc (ACU) is a Canadian company that develops and markets inline measurement, visualization and control systems for the photovoltaic manufacturing industry. The company’s shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. ACU’s technology is built on a quality control system for solar cell manufacturing. In process terms, this involves non-contacting mapping of wafer performance to optimize diffusion process while using an ultra-high line speed measurement system, Decima. The company has lately introduced an enhanced version of its Decima^TM inline measurement system for quality control of bifacial solar cells during production.

 

Quality Control System (Source: Company Reports)
 
Received the single largest order: The company received a major order from LG Electronics Inc. for 12 Decima CDs and multiple Veritas Servers and the same is expected to be delivered before the end of February 2017. As ACU has already delivered five Decima 3T units, along with this order, the booked orders for the fiscal year would be worth more than $1.5 million dollars, against the recognized revenue of $0.29 million dollars for the year ending March 31, 2016. Moreover, ACU also got a follow-on order last year from another recognized leader in solar cell technology. The shipped products from these two orders were successfully put into production in December, 2016. Meanwhile, the group aims for further orders from this customer for a new solar cell production facility in the first half of 2017, which is expected to amount to at least another 20 units. The successful sale and installation of Decima and Veritas Software to leading industry players is creating new order opportunities for ACU. In the last six months, ACU has introduced its products to over eight potential new customers, which indicates for more revenue for the company. ACU is targeting Asia that represents over 85% of global solar cell production, by leveraging their strategic partnerships while making progress with end to end Quality Control System design. ACU stock generated returns of about 19.4% in this year to date (as of January 20, 2017) but fell about 15.9% in last one year.

Rivertop Renewables

Rivertop Renewables is a U.S. based renewables company catering to multitude of markets such as home care, oil & gas, nutrition, food beverage and the like. The company was selected as a 2016 Global Cleantech 100 ‘One to Watch’ and identified as one with the ability to draw the attention of leading investors and corporates in the market.
 
Diverse products that are safer to use: Rivertop’s Riose® detergent builder is an effective, cost-efficient, renewable and safe replacement for phosphate builders which have been banned now for use in detergents. The company’s Waterline® CI is a corrosion inhibitor developed to simplify water treatment. Another related product developed by Rivertop is its Headwaters® corrosion inhibitor, which is used to de-ice roads while protecting vehicles and highway infrastructure from corrosion. The product is derived from renewable sugars, and is biodegradable and cost-effective. In fact, Rivertop Renewables has been awarded a contract from Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to supply bio-based corrosion inhibitor for use with liquid anti/de-icers on the state’s roads. A couple of years earlier, Rivertop had started the commercial manufacturing of sustainable, high performing, cost-competitive and glucarate-based products along with a Virginia based company, DTI (DanChem Technologies). Rivertop and DTI planned to achieve production at nameplate capacity of 10 million pounds per year. Looking at the prospects, it will be prudent to keep an eye on this budding company.

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