i can't see it becoming a baseload power source. For that there is no way around either coal, gas, oil or nuclear. Given Woodside Energy's massive reserves of relatively clean, low-emission gas, that would be my choice. Plus a mixture of wind, solar, hydro and of course bio gas. I can't see a situation where bio gas is any more than 10% of the national energy mix. However, that's still a huge amount of bio gas power; and the new facilities needed to get anywhere near ten percent. It can compliment other clean energy sources, sure.
I agree with you about Hydrogen (and Ammonia). It's unproven and expensive. Another case of pie in the sky wishful thinking. Idealogy and politics coming face to face with physics, engineering and economical reality. My understanding is hydrogen itself isn't a naturally occurring energy source. It's created through the use of other energy! Woodside is engaged in this sleight of hand trick at the moment in its WA hydrogen projects which uses gas to produce the hydrogen it touts as clean. Good luck to them, I say!
This from the AMEO website. It's a breakdown of the sources of electricity generation over the past twelve months. Bio gas is coming off such a low level. Market penetration at the moment is (0.2%) almost zero. That's good for us. Coal will drop off and we're well placed to help replace it. Image the investment required to bump that up to any meaningful figure. I'm surprised the state and federal governments aren't throwing more grant money around and offering cheap finance. Especially with Labor's incredibly ambitious emissions targets.
Something I've been thinking about recently.... And I'm not aiming to be a downramper or overly negative. I wouldn't own the stock unless I was very positive about it's future. However I'm trying to cover all my bases before adding to my existing very modest (but 50% down) holding. Hopefully we've seen the end of Regal.
What's the worst possible scenario for DEL? Say, Planum Partners tell DEL to get lost. Finance can't be obtained full stop. Brickworks decide to go in another direction. Either Hamish or Joe lose interest, or get poached by a well-funded start-up backed by Elders or Wesfarmers! At 10¢ per share, what assets would we have if the company was delisted tomorrow? If Joe or Hamish wanted to acquire all the shares and take the company private again... We've got a big pipeline of potential contracts $200m or potentially $500m. The organisation itself has a lot of experience that can't be replicated easily. Intellectual property. Would we be a takeover target? Could anyone estimate the NTA in, say, a year's time with a couple more of these projects under construction, another couple of "preferred bidder" announcements in the meantime, plus the assets we have now?
So far we've got a couple of plants, a wish list pipeline, and a lot of big plans. Would the pipeline of projects have financial value if we're financially unable to start/complete them ourselves? What would we have left as assets if the company itself wasn't able to take those projects on and flounders from here? Is it a case of the more projects we're able to take on, the more infrastructure we're able to build, and the safer investors will be because we have that NTA backing of operating bio gas plants behind us?
We're at the very early stages with this company. I think I heard Hamish in an interview saying DEL has 40 employees. I love their PPT presentation with the map and various projects for each state, but aside from the retail operations in WA there's not a lot of actual construction underway. VIC1 is in construction, plus hopefully SA1, with more projects due to start next year.
I'm hoping this is a Dorothy Dix type question for the likes of EmptyTrolley or anyone else who can glean some meaning from what I've typed.
It's been a horrible week for all investors. I hope anybody reading this will not think I'm being too pessimistic about DEL's future. I'm just looking for as much opinion and information as I can get. Let's hope next week is better than the week just gone.
(20min delay)