2023 thoughts, page-2

Funnily enough I'm less concerned about the execution of the projects than you Lessons would have been learnt from the NZ mistakes, and Covid was a once-off. Similar to MAQ or NextDC...? Possibly... I can see that connection. It's a best-case scenario but you have to be an optimist to invest in anything which anticipates a brighter future.

From the odd comment here and there on Facebook and LinkedIn, the owners are very happy with the physical, final product in NZ -- ignoring completely the unfortunate financial side of things.

We received a SA government award for the BLM project. The short 1 minute videos on our LinkedIn and YouTube pages featuring the project manager, Ross Merchant, talking about the award and the project are very promising. He seems like the type of professional that I hope stays with us for many future projects.

We clearly make an excellent product which should be in high demand. Labor's virtual reintroduction of a carbon tax by stealth with high polluters buying credits from companies like us won't do us any harm.

I checked out the expert (Dr. Ralf Cord-Ruwisch) on LinkedIn who certified the BLM plant. He's a serious professional with a heavy duty résumé who arguably knows more about bioenergy than all of Delorean's staff combined. He sounded genuinely impressed with what we'd achieved at BLM, saying it "exceeded widely accepted knowledge" in generating energy from grain husks.

We aren't really a renewable energy company though. We sell no renewable energy and do not own any assets to produce this energy. Perhaps Delorean resembles a very small engineering company (which operates in the bioenergy space for EPC builds). Or even a small cap junior miner: which explores, does drilling and testing, focuses on a particular site, slowly receives government permits and licenses, arranges offtake agreements, achieves FID, obtains finance, builds the mine, then operates it and collects revenue from the product it sells. That sounds very familiar to Delorean's process on its BOOM pipeline projects. Not a renewable energy company. It operates in the renewable energy sector.

2022 feels like it was a lost year. I really thought we'd have another two, possibly three EPC announcements and that SA1 and VIC1 would be on their way to completion. Maybe a lot was happening behind the scenes and that as yet unknown EPC builds were negotiatiated, and ordering of supplies for current projects, was achieved.

Everything feels like a hard slog at the moment. Like trying to run through mud! I'm hoping that as the energy situation gets worse in Australia and DEL persists as an ongoing company, we'll reach a critical mass where approvals happen faster, EPC enquiries and announcements are more frequent, an experienced DEL can build plants faster, and financing becomes easier as our product becomes more mainstream and we've got more runs on the board. That's a lot of "ifs" and won't happen in 2023, or even 2024. But that's the type of progression which would lead us towards a MAQ type situation. It's a future I can imagine, but my holding in DEL remains a very small part of my portfolio. It's a position I'd love to increase as future milestones are reached. I'm curious enough (and under-invested enough!) to wait and see how the next 12 months unfolds.

The glass-half-full approach would be to say the level of complication and time involved to plan and build a plant represents a type of moat. Who else would want to set themselves up in competition with DEL in this industry given the complications and known-knowns, let alone the unknowns!? I'd like to think Joe has a team of people in Perth who have unique, specialist and hard-to-replace skills; who know how to overcome technical, governmental, and financial hurdles. It's our organisational learning from past mistakes, the experienced team in Perth, and the work done towards securing approvals and offtake agreements with the likes of Origin Energy, which in my opinion are our real assets. These things would take years to replicate.

I wonder if DEL is looking for other partners and has other plans in place to finance plants, or if it's full steam ahead with the 50/50 finance deal announced before Christmas for SA and VIC plus an option for three (?) other sites? I'd also be curious to know if we've been talking to other companies about other Yarra Valley type EPC builds. We certainly have the expertise and experience to design them. The team has overcome a lot of problems and has a better idea of how the government approval process works. It's something I'd like to ask if we have another meeting in February.

That's all from me. My thoughts typed out and hopefully not too much for others to read through. I'm sure I speak for all holders when I write that Empty Trolley's long list of 2022 goals last January was invaluable. Any similar list for 2023 would be very welcome.