Arthur A. Bottone
Analyst · Lazard Capital Markets
Thank you, Mike. Please turn to Slide 9, Asian market update. South Korea's far reaching renewable portfolio standard continues to drive the growing market for fuel cell power plants in that country. Large fuel cell parks are now being constructed, demonstrating the market potential for distributed generation fuel cell power plants and the need for local manufacturing in South Korea. One of these is a 58.8-megawatt fuel cell park southeast of Seoul. Currently the largest fuel cell park in the world, it will consist of 21 DFC3000 power plants, each generating 2.8 megawatts of ultra-clean, reliable electrical power, with the heat energy to be used for district heating purposes. POSCO Energy will lead the construction of the fuel cell park and maintain and service the power plants under a long-term service agreement. Construction has commenced. This high-profile park demonstrates the attractiveness of large-scale distributed generation fuel cell projects to developers, utility companies, gas companies and investors. This and other fuel cell parks illustrate our product suitability for power grid applications. Their combination of near 0 pollutants, modest land-use needs and quiet operating characteristics make them easy to cite urban locations, mitigating the need to construct and maintain costs for distribution and transmission infrastructure. These fuel cell power projects support demand for POSCO's 121.8-megawatt order and manufacturing license agreement that we finalized during the fourth quarter. Valued at $181 million, the multi-year order for fuel cell kits nearly triples our product backlog and has triggered a planned increase in the production rate at our manufacturing facility in Torrington to 70 megawatts in 2013, increasing our workforce by 10%. The license agreement gives POSCO Energy the right to manufacture carbonate fuel cell components in South Korea, based on our direct fuel cell technology and grants commercial rights to Asian markets. The agreement harmonizes 2 prior license agreements, giving POSCO the right to manufacture the entire DFC power plant. In-country manufacturing enables our partner to fill fast growing demand and meet customer expectations for lead times and costs. The license agreement contributes directly to our profitability in a number of specific ways. First, the royalty structure has been enhanced. In addition to total payments of $26 million to FuelCell Energy, POSCO will pay us a 3% royalty for each power plant they build and sell during the next 15 years. With mutual consent, the agreement may be extended for 2 additional terms of 5 years. The new royalty is based on the selling price of the entire power plant, while the old royalty was based only on the value added by POSCO and excluded the fuel cell components that drive the value of the plants. As a result, cash impact of the new royalty is approximately double that of the old royalty. In addition, the term of the new royalty has also doubled the old royalty as the remaining term of the old royalty structure was only 7 years. These royalties will generate a consistent growing revenue stream as the Asian market expands without requiring any capital investment by FuelCell Energy. Second, our integrated global supply chain benefits. The increased volume will give us additional leverage with our suppliers, reducing material costs for FuelCell Energy and POSCO, again, requiring no capital investment by us. The same suppliers are used for both the Torrington and Pohang, South Korea facilities, and greater purchasing volume and enhanced predictability of demand will reduce material costs. And finally, because South Korea manufacturing represents an alternative source of fuel cell stack supply, we gain a second source of supply. This is very important to some customers and project investors, who value the insurance against possible disruptions in supply. For constituents like these, POSCO's sizable investment in fuel cell production validates the market opportunity for fuel cell power generation. Please turn to Slide 10, European market highlights. Our European strategy continues to gain momentum and is producing positive results. Earlier this month, we announced the sale of another stationary fuel cell power plant for a marquee redevelopment project in Central London; an environmentally advanced office tower installation, which illustrates the many advantages of on-site fuel cell power generation. Located at 20 Fenchurch, the prestigious 38-story, 690,000-square-foot building is being constructed by 2 of the U.K.'s major developers. Our direct fuel cell power plants are easy to site because of the virtual absence of pollutants, quiet operation and modest footprint. As a result, the power plant will be installed within the building complex itself. The power plant will provide 300 kilowatts of ultra-clean electricity and heat and a highly efficient Combined Heat and Power configuration, in which our power plants excel. The CHP configured power plants should obtain a system efficiency of greater than 80%, while helping the city meet its low carbon targets and fulfilling the Mayor of London's goal of making London the greenest big city in the world. Sold through FuelCell Energy Solutions, our joint venture with German-based Fraunhofer IKTS, this plant is a European solution that utilizes European design and content along with a European-based service organization. The sale of this 300-kilowatt power plant is consistent with our overall European strategy of using some select sub-megawatt installations to seed the market and demonstrate the attributes of our products. Europe's largest application-oriented research organization, Fraunhofer, recently dedicated a new green-tech campus, with the financial support from the state of Carinthia. The state has committed $9 million for the development of this campus that will accelerate adoption of fuel cells and storage technologies, with storage initiatives including research into hydrogen applications. The sizable investment commitment made in this campus underscores the interest federal and local governments have in supporting Fraunhofer's fuel cell research and deployment of fuel cells as part of their future power generation portfolio. I'm pleased with the current level of interest and pace of project development across the European served area and expect to report on additional near-term orders. Please turn to Slide 11, 14.9-megawatt USA fuel cell park. We are pleased to announce last week that FuelCell Energy is providing a turnkey distributed generation solution for the engineering, procurement and construction of a 14.9-megawatt fuel cell park in Bridgeport, Connecticut. This project will be the largest fuel cell project of its kind in North America, and has strong replication potential. We will manufacture and install 5 2.8-megawatt DFC3000 fuel cell power plants and operate and maintain them under a 15-year services agreement. The project increases our total product and service backlog by about $125 million. The Bridgeport project provides a vast list of benefits to a large number of constituents. These benefits include economic development, financial and urban redevelopment. Dominion, one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of electricity, purchased the facility. Connecticut Light & Power will buy the electricity generated by the park under a 15-year fixed price energy purchase agreement. Construction is underway. The first power plant will be installed this summer and the remaining plants installed in stages. United Illuminating, the local utility, has begun the interconnection process. The park will be fully operational by the end of 2013. A number of factors helped us close this historic project. These include FuelCell Energy's improved capital position, validation by the POSCO investments in technology and market development, the second source of supply being constructed in South Korea and our growing installed base of megawatt-class power plants that serve to illustrate our products and strengthen our company through recurring service revenue. I must also credit and thank the strong local, state and federal support for this project. This U.S. fuel cell park is attracting considerable attention in the media and among other utilities globally. Like our partnerships with blue ship -- blue chip companies around the world, our affiliation with Dominion provides intangible benefits that contribute to momentum in our markets. Please turn to Slide 12, U.S. market update. In addition to growing in our geographic markets, our business strategy includes expanding into new vertical markets such as data centers. We recently announced the sale of a stationary fuel cell power plant to Microsoft. The power plant will utilize renewable biogas generated by a wastewater treatment facility at the fuel source to generate carbon-neutral power for a data center. Microsoft data centers support more than 1 billion customers and 20 million businesses globally. Like other technology companies, Microsoft desires clean power and has committed to become carbon neutral in 2013. This project with Microsoft is a valuable first step in opening the market for carbon-neutral fuel cell power plants for data centers, which represents a large potential market for multi-megawatt fuel cell power plant installations. In October, we dedicated a 2.8-megawatt DFC3000 stationary fuel cell power plant installation at a municipal wastewater facility in California. This well-publicized ribbon-cutting was attended by the President of the California Public Utility Commission and other VIPs, highlighting the project's importance and significance. Owned by a project investor, the power plant efficiently converts biogas, a harmful greenhouse gas, into ultra-clean electricity and heat for use in power utility agencies, a municipal water district. Our power plants are unique in their ability to efficiently and economically convert biogas, a waste product, into continuous baseload power on-site and immensely absent of pollutants. The world's largest fuel cell power plant operating on renewable biogas -- on-site biogas, the plan is helping California reach its aggressive renewable portfolio standards. California enacted AB 32 in late 2012. This cap and trade legislation is designed to minimize the emissions of greenhouse gases and treats fuel cells favorably. Because facilities utilizing combustion based power generation can reduce or eliminate their compliance costs by deploying fuel cells running on natural gas or renewable biogas, we anticipate this legislation will further adoption of fuel cell power plants. The first carbon auction provided credits at approximately $10 per ton, a level that attracts attention, as it is high enough to favorably impact economics. Given the expansion of our installed base and our ability to develop projects that can offer solutions that create value, we are seeing growing interest for our power plants. Our activity pipeline is improving in quality, and we look forward to adding to our order backlog. Please turn to Slide 13, Versa Power Systems acquisition. Our advanced technologies team is focused on developing technologies that have strong near-term prospects for commercialization, one of these being solid oxide fuel cells, which is an excellent complement to our Direct FuelCells. Based on a carbon catalyst, carbon fuel cells are well suited for megawatt class installations, whereas solid oxide fuel cells are better suited for sub-megawatt and special applications such as advanced military and storage. Positioning our company to benefit from these adjacent market opportunities with complementary solid oxide fuel cell technology, we purchased the remaining shares of Versa Power Systems. The Versa technology is earning widespread global recognition. Already, this transaction has attracted the attention of numerous potential partners interested in participating in commercialization opportunities. The Versa brand represent an exceptional value in the marketplace due to FuelCell Energy's unique position to leverage our extensive experience and resources that can accelerate the product's commercialization. We anticipate developing fuel cell -- or solid oxide fuel cell markets without investing our own capital by employing our proven business model of working with suitable global partners. We are currently in advanced discussions with several potential partners. Versa technology has been deemed world-class due to high power density of the individual fuel cells, which drives its power generation capabilities. Currently, we are testing a 60-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell stack with an electrical efficiency of approximately 60%, and with CHP capabilities that contribute to a total thermal efficiency of approximately 80% to 85%. The Versa transaction yields multiple revenue streams. These include revenues flowing from Versa's participation in -- with the FuelCell Energy and Department of Energy Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance coal-based systems program and from Versa's status as a Boeing company supplier under the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency program to develop long-range endurance unmanned aircraft. Please turn to Slide 14, summary. As promised, we aggressively executed on our global growth strategy in 2012, constructing a solid foundation for future growth. This produced historic results that are serving as catalysts for accelerated order execution and progress towards profitability. The large POSCO order establishes multi-year base production levels, while the license agreement leverages our resources in Asia. With the second source of supply, we now have a global manufacturing footprint that will contribute to further cost reduction and advance our vision of below the grid pricing, while competing with more traditional power generation sources. Other achievements include our first utility scale project in the U.S.A., which will drive utility adoption, our entry into the potentially large data center market; a second London installation at a prestigious office tower; and the Versa transaction, which positions us for sub-megawatt solid oxide fuel cell opportunities. These milestones have garnered favorable worldwide attention that will lead to new opportunities to continue our growth. We enter 2013 with a record $450 million pro forma backlog, supporting multi-year committed production and ensuring the growth of our installed base. We are generating multiple revenue streams from diversified sources, including product sales, our growing services business, constructions and royalty income and solid oxide fuel cell contracts. These accomplishments would not have been possible without a tremendous effort by our team of talented associates. As always, I want to thank our investors for their continued loyalty and support. Operator, we'll be happy to take questions at this time.