Hey mate,
I asked the exact question to Ross at the AGM just last week (Thursday)
To try and summarize he basically said:
Mr. Kalina made the tech saw a clear advantage and wanted to be the only person selling his tech with his suppliers etc.
GFC happened and he went under, Ross mentioned how it was a bit too greedy trying to do it all himself.
John Burne saw the tech, put 3 million of his own hard cash to buy the company that went into VA, then became wasabi etc and they kept trying to pick up the pieces and frankly not good enough to sell the product.
Ross mentioned when he was at Pristine power (a company he ran that then went on to sell for 300M USD) Kalina tech came across their desk and they wanted to acquire it, but it did not fit the company's criteria for an acquisition.
So Ross gets a call from John saying "hey I got this Kalina tech" and here we are now.
The most refreshing thing Ross spoke to me about though was how "People will be forced to come to us" and he stressed "There is enough opportunity out there, we don't even need to fight ORMAT for clients because our plants simply work better and in lower temperature environments that ORMAT's tech simply can't do, and how dangerous the ORC tech is compared to ours, and cannot be modified per client.
Remember Kalinas plants are an ammonia based brine that can be customised to how you like your plant and also the composition of the liquid can be adjusted to your heat source.
ORC uses butane and other explosive materials, so there are heaps of companies that simply can not/ will not want to use a waste heat solution that is highly dangerous and is inconsistent.
One more thing to note, he mentioned how the team of engineers and the other 2-3 that will be announced this year will basically oversee the construction of Kalina plants worldwide.
Ross has a much smarter business approach to the predecessors, Kalina is partnering with world renown Firms that will complete the construction for the client with our engineers overlooking the project, he said "we make less money this way but it's much more reliable, and we can make money off the plant and the maintenance royalties, and we can roll-out worldwide so much easier. (Look at the CRYOSTAR partnership, that is one of many that will build for us.
Straight from the horse's mouth, I've probably missed many important details but it is all I can remember right now, I hope this clears things up for you mate.
Have a good one guys and remember, I'm investing based off strong management, strong tech, and a tight register.
This is a 6-month hold at least, things look ugly now (low volume sell offs) but what can you expect with no news, I even mentioned to Ross how he needs to inform the market better and to let the market know that you are so much more than just the "Sinopec China story" and he Agreed, so lets see if he can walk the walk and announce to the market what the 2017 outlook is with timelines.
PS.
He mentioned how it only takes 9 months to build a plant with the planned partnerships vs Previous operators still taking years at the Sinopec Plant.
KPO is simply picking up the pieces from Wasabi energy and finishing the plant they failed to finish.
Sorry for the terrible formatting but I quickly just put this together.
Bring on 2017 folks!
Val.
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