Chip Bottone
Analyst · FBR. You may begin
Thank you, Mike. Please turn to Slide 7, Execution Progress. We have made significant progress across all segments of our global markets leveraging our common technology platform, development and financing models. Our growing sales pipeline stands at over $2 billion primarily from a broad range of utility scale on on-site preferred resource projects. We are developing larger on-site projects. The Pfizer project for example, is our second largest individual project to date in North America. This was developed and executed outside of any utility or state-sponsored RFP process showing the competitiveness and replicability of our offering. Our commercial fuel-cell power plant can be used for carbon capture applications as concentrating carbon dioxide is a side reaction of the plant's normal power generation process. We effectively offer emission reduction solutions while supplying electrical and thermal energy simultaneously. Our offering covers three distinct carbon capture markets. These include coal and gas powered power plants and applications for Oil Sands where we can reduce emissions and supply power and steam to the oil recovery process. In the coal-fired market, we are in discussions with owners of potential power plant sites for large carbon capture projects. This project is in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy and potentially other partners. Expect a decision on the siting of this project soon. This is an important opportunity that we expect will lead to additional carbon capture projects in North America and Europe. We recently announced a project that is targeting oil processing at a Canadian Oil Sands reportedly reducing in carbon emissions produced during the Oil Sands operations with our fuel-cell power plants is a very potential market for us. Our solution is also applicable to steel and cement industries. In Europe there is a strong interest in affordably capturing carbon while maintaining industry competitiveness and we are beginning to pursue some potential opportunities. Our tri-generation distributed hydrogen system is a key potential solution for the infrastructure needed to facilitate widespread adoption of fuel-cell electric vehicles. It is superior to conventional alternatives as affordability generates 100% renewable hydrogen with the project structure that attracts private capital offsetting the need for public funding. We are pursuing a well defined pathway for development, establishing attractive regulatory framework, discussions with potential partners and our hydrogen facility of takers. Simultaneously, we will secure power purchase agreements or PPAs with the site owners or municipalities. During the first quarter, our solution received contingent certification under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard Administration by the California Air Resources Board and classified our 100% renewable hydrogen solution as carbon negative. This is unique in the hydrogen generation market. CARB's classification takes into consideration the fact that the biogas fuel for our solutions is renewable. CARB then compares fuel-cell electric vehicles are renewable hydrogen to gasoline powered cars, ultimately certifying our solution as carbon negative due to the emissions from gasoline powered vehicles. This is superior to solar-based electrolyzers and far superior to traditional steam reforming, which were the other methods of generating hydrogen today. Please turn to Slide 8, On-site Project Update. Recent results validate our focus on larger projects that help to illustrate why our solutions are preferred resource. They also point to ways in which we have strengthened our value proposition by offering financing options. As shown on this slide, we progressed from installing sub megawatt projects 10 years ago to multi-megawatt projects today. We are currently targeting behind the meter multi-megawatt projects up to 11 megawatts. Project activity in this segment of the business continues to increase from both new and existing customers. We have recently strengthened our commercial team with the addition of several people with relevant industry and business model experience. Energy independence and security are highly valued. The fuel-cell in Pfizer's micro-grid for example will operate in parallel with the grid. In the event of a grid disturbance will continue to generate power for Pfizer's R&D facility by switching to an island mode that is grid independent. This has value for users that lose productivity when the power supply is disrupted. Our power plants can serve as the sole power source from micro-grid is the town of Woodbridge micro-grid project or they can be combined with other technologies. We have the capability to model, build and operate the micro-grid which is an important differentiator for us. We are actively marketing our micro-grid capabilities and are witnessing increasing interest as evidenced by the RFP activity in our markets. Customers like Pfizer also value CHP attributes of our fuel-cell solutions, by generating electricity and heat using the same unit of fuel CHP configured solutions enhance economics and contribute to sustainability. We are currently constructing more than 16 megawatts of projects in multiple geographic markets. These projects increase the current service revenues. Our power plants are capable of operating in a variety of fuels that include both renewable biogas and directed biogas. Renewable biogas must be cleaned prior to the use as fuel source and our team has developed proprietary gas cleaner process and equipment. This equipment will be incorporated into our power plants we are installing the regional water treatment plant operated by the City of Riverside, California. This ensures the customers quality of one point of contact and demonstrates how our R&D investment is enhancing our value proposition while generating new revenue and margin opportunities. Expanding the availability of financing options allows us to meet the budget and capital needs of our customers while providing FuelCell Energy with the flexibility to selectively retain projects to maximize revenues, margin and cash generation over the term of the project. Financing options avoid capital investment power generation assets making our project more attractive to some customers. Please turn to Slide nine, Utility-scale Project Update. Large fuel-cell parks in South Korea and Connecticut validate the use of our solutions for utility customers who wanted to generate affordable, clean and reliable power in large-scale applications. We see strong interest by utility companies in our portfolio of resource solutions and value proposition. I would like to provide an update on the Beacon Falls project as it is in the public domain and a good example to illustrate the multiple steps in development while I can take some time to close. O&G Industries is the project owner and Beacon Falls Energy Park is the project developer. FuelCell Energy is a designated supplier of all the power plants for the project. This will be a direct sale of equipment and services meaning we will recognize revenue as the power plants are shipped and installed and we will also recognize service revenue over the life of the project. The potential value of this project to FuelCell Energy is more than $500 million including both equipment and services. We expect the project will be executed in multiple phases beginning in 2016. We have already passed a number of significant milestones. We began by associating with partners who have gas plant development experience and own the land. The team gained local government support while undertaking interconnect studies leading to siting Council approval from the state. A property tax stabilization agreement was executed. Contracts have been exchanged between the parties and the project business submitted into the tri-state RFP in January. The tax stabilization agreement is a reflection of why these projects are highly attractive to the local municipalities. The improved property value per square foot generally exceeds by a substantial sum any other productive use of brownfield and other projects are constructed relatively quickly boosting the local tax revenue from what was an empty lot. The tax stabilization agreement recognizes the high per square foot value and adjusted tax payment due over the life of the project to fairly represent the value and support project economics. Unintrusive, clean and quiet, these power generation sources can also enhance local power resiliency in the event of storm outages. The next step for Beacon Falls project is to identify the power up taker which is the purpose of bidding into the tri-state RFP, closing on project financing and commencing construction. According to the tri-state RFP structure, selection of bidders is to be announced between April 26 and July 26, 2016. Our pipeline of big projects includes multi-megawatt projects for East and West coast U.S. utilities. Our list of developing projects and active utility RFPs is expanding rapidly and we expect to bid multiple sites of multi-megawatt projects into each RFP. As an example, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's RFP for Class 1 resource is in the range of 2 to 20 megawatts was released yesterday, March 9. We expect to bid multiple projects and have been developing throughout Connecticut size ranges of up to 20 megawatts. Bids for this RFP are due May 4, with selections dated for June to July 2016. We expect the Long Island Power Authority or LIPA to issue an RFP for 40 megawatts of fuel-cell generation soon. We continue to develop numerous multi-megawatt projects for Long Island and recently bid into an RFP that addresses a low pocket shortfall in a specific region. Municipalities and site owners are eager to talk with us. For example, as we have been reporting in the local press referenced on this slide we are in discussions with the officials in the Town of Bristol in Central Connecticut to develop a fuel-cell park on a vacant brownfield site. We continue to enhance our solutions investing resources into new offerings and enhancements including those for utility markets. Notable enhancements include advancing our $3.7 megawatt configuration for utilities and data centers that may not have heat applications. We can provide 60% electrical efficiency which rivals much larger combined cycle plans. Capacity support as utility scale projects are eligible for capacity payments, KVAR support with utilities valued particularly on the outskirts of the service territory, demand response utilizing multiple plants, primary frequency response, black-start capabilities mean we do not need the grid to be operational to commence power production. These capabilities dramatically increase the competitiveness and financial returns are often globally. Please turn to Slide 10, Summary. Our affordable ultraclean solutions are recognized as preferred resources in our markets. The team is working to increase volume and top line revenue by focusing on larger projects and address adjacent markets via our common technology platform. We are making solid progress on these initiatives. The PNC facility has expanded our access to project capital, giving us greater financial flexibility and support margin expansion. Demand for our solutions is increasing. We achieved our third successful quarterly increase in backlog supported by larger projects like Pfizer and by growth in services. We've grown the scale of our behind the meter applications highlighted by Pfizer's 5.6 megawatt systems, customers are choosing our reliable systems for their micro-grids. We are actively bidding on utility scale RFPs. While large projects take some time to develop, we are intently focused on advancing multiple large projects to closure. Municipalities are expressing interest in fuel-cell parks like Beacon Falls. Production capacity is in place to deliver to the requirements of these numerous projects. Our business model is also aligned to the project contractual and execution requirements. Prospective utility scale opportunities like Beacon Falls and carbon capture are drivers for undertaking the capacity expansion in North America. In terms of the graph on the bottom right, we continue to forecast EBITDA breakeven of 70 megawatts with the appropriate sales mix and net income breakeven at 90 to 100 megawatts annually. The current 100 megawatt capacity of our North American manufacturing facility supports our net income breakeven target. The second phase of our expansion will provide an additional hundred megawatts capacity to support further growth. Operator, we'll be happy to take questions at this time.