I decided to start a new thread because the "budget" heading was...

I decided to start a new thread because the "budget" heading was getting a bit out of date - however, this post follows on from some of the points raised in that thread.

For those wanting to compare the prices CNM can get for it's electricity in each country, there's a handy chart in the latest CNM presentation - p.15

http://www.carnegiecorp.com.au/files/asx-announcements/2009/090501_Carnegie_Website_May09.pdf

There's probably no doubt CNM would opt for the first site to be in Australia if a $50-$100 mill fed grant (and $12.5mill state grant) was on offer, even though it would get considerably more for each MW overseas. But even if the fed grant wasn't delivered, it's still nice to know they'll go ahead with the demo plant in Bermuda and/or Canada - given the support of EDF and the prices that they'll get, particularly in Bermuda.

Either way, there will be a lot of pressure on the fed govt/ and WA govt, not to lose this home grown innovation.

In terms of what we can expect before August, i think the most obvious things are:

** A full environmental impact assessment on the Albany site (which, if postive, will lead to an announcement that Albany is the first site - putting more pressure on for the fed grant). We could also expect a preliminary environmental report on the SA site (perhaps even Bermuda and/or Canada).

** The Binningup decision - who knows when it will be announced but by August, Garrett will have had the info for long enough to have given it the go ahead.

** Perhaps another investigation site in OZ, this time near Eden in NSW (if anyone in the NSW govt can organise anything!)

** As far as announcements regarding partnerships in each of the possible countries, I'm not sure if such announcements will occur before the shareholders vote in Sept or after. One that I think could be on the cards before August is Enxco in the US.( http://www.enxco.com/ ) Enxco is the subsidiary of EDF EN in the US. They are big in wind energy and are also involved in solar as well. They've always had a close relationship with REH's wind farm activities so it's all pretty cosy. Adding wave energy to their website seems like a perfect fit - and perhaps they would also partner with other local companies within each state (like REH did with GEH in Canada).

I've got no doubt the "merging" of CNM and REH's interests have been intended for a long time. It's interesting (and i've mentioned this before), that at the AGM Alan Burns described his recent month long trip to the US and the huge opportunities he saw there. When one of the attendees asked whether he saw a bright future for the cleaner coal tech there (the attendee asked why was he in the US when CNM didnt own northern hemisphere CETO rights?) Alan, from memory, sort of agreed/deflected but in hindsight, i think if you went back to the transcript i bet he didnt explicity agree that it was in relation to cleaner coal. Having seen how cleaner coal has been on the back-burner, it's obvious that Alan would have been in the US talking about CETO, either as a board member of REH, the Chairman of Seapower Pacific, or as the CNM Chairman with a view to the future. Whatever, I think there's a really good chance we'll get some preliminary US activity sooner rather than later.

I haven't been able to find even a skerrick of info in relation to possible connections with companies in any other countries but i'm looking forward to seeing what pans out.

** We could enter into some co-funding arrangement with the new National Centre of Excellence in Desalination at Murdoch Uni, to further develop CETO's direct desalination processes, but perhaps that might wait until we get a bit more disposable cash.

Any other thoughts?