Quite often people lose perspective of companies like CWE. It...

Quite often people lose perspective of companies like CWE. It also has to do with expectations and disappointment when results do not appear within our time frame. CWE is still in Research and Development mode. A few years ago management itself thought that it would have been in the marketing phase by now.

During 2013 the company recognised that,

1. CETO generating units should be at least 1MW in size
2. Underwater component technology had advanced sufficiently so that a variety of off-the-shelf fittings and connectors, both mechanical and electrical, were now commercially available
3. Energy losses were significantly reduced by seafloor power cable transmission rather than pushing a viscous fluid along many kilometres of pipeline uphill to a suitable shore site. (Larger amplitude waves are generally further offshore.)
4. Demand for renewable energy is far greater than for fresh water, particularly where special FiTs are offered (such as EU).
5. The incentives and ‘free’ testing facilities offered overseas are so good that CWE had better swallow its pride and participate in a bit of cooperation rather than make out that they can do everything themselves. (Even then, in their FloWave report they were as cagey as ever in not sharing test information.)

Moving from the C5 to the C6 as their commercial model was a dramatic change for CWE and at first they did not know what they were doing (although they knew what they wanted to do). People might remember that MO went on a road show in early 2014 with all kinds of odd little stories that kept the audience spell bound but didn’t really make sense. There was also a cooperation agreement with Atlantic which was actually a one way thing for CWE. It was all part of an interesting jigsaw puzzle.

In one sense it is a pity that the C5 and C6 could not be combined under one name. The C5 is complete, it works, but is not saleable, which explains why the SP has fallen. Pharmaceutical companies can keep on working on drug trials for 10 years (Phases 1, 2, 3) and that is quite acceptable. Why not consider the C5 as an earlier phase of the C6? In that case the company reports should reflect that and the SP should gradually rise towards the marketable model. CWE appears to have a very limited understanding of the various psychologies of publicity.

[Was originally intended to discuss SP under ‘CWE chart’ thread but this one may be better.]

Juke