re: Ann: New 4.75MWe Kalina Cycle Power Plant... Been keeping an...

re: Ann: New 4.75MWe Kalina Cycle Power Plant... Been keeping an eye on this since 2009, seems like they have finally been kicking goals the past 2 years but unfortunately the share price is still where it was 4 years ago! An interesting one to follow

Wasabi Energy

THE London arm of global funds management giant BlackRock has taken a shine to ASX and London-listed Wasabi Energy (WAS), with recent buying of the emerging green power producer taking its holding to 9.6 per cent.

The local market is not on board yet -- Wasabi last traded at 1.6c for a market cap of $44m -- but BlackRock is backing the idea that Wasabi's change of tack with its Kalina Cycle technology (it converts waste and low temperature heat into green power) will be worth following.

Kalina power plants are starting to pop up in all sorts of places, the latest deal being to install one in a Sinopec petrochemical plant in China. It will capture comparatively low-temperature waste heat from a particular part of the plant, raise steam in its water/ammonia heat exchanger, and use it to produce 4MW of electricity.

All well and good, and entitling Wasabi to an upfront fee and a one-off payment for each megawatt installed. Given Sinopec has 45 other petrochemical plants -- and this application is limited to just one part of the plant that gives off waste heat -- you have got to wonder what it will all mean in the end.

But that is not the reason that investors like BlackRock are getting positioned. Wasabi has now set out to become a power producer in its own right, applying the Kalina cycle to all sorts of waste heat sources (think petrochemical, cement and steel plants for starters), as well heat that can be drawn from geothermal and solar sources.

It has got a target to add at least 25MW annually to its own account, all of which attracts premium pricing or offset value because of its greenness. Find someone who can model that in terms of potential annual earnings and growth potential to know why Wasabi thinks it is both green and hot. BlackRock presumably did.