Welcome to the 1414 Degrees 2022 annual general meeting. I am Kevin Moriarty, your chairman.
Though I have not had time in the past week to fully assess the status of the Company I do know that I am excited and ready to be back in this role. I also understand that our shareholders need reassurance on a number of points.
The first matter I want to deal with is whether the decline in the share price and capitalisation of the company is a reflection of the status of our technology and projects. The answer is a definite no.
What I have seen is very encouraging. In fact, it is so encouraging that I am appalled that the share price is not reflecting the worth of our technology and projects.
The Aurora project has been our most immediate prospect of capturing a significant cash flow, so I will deal with that first.
Two years ago I announced modelled net cash flows of the order of $25m to $30m from the combination of solar and battery used to stabilise the electricity grid. Not only has that cash flow projection been sustained, but the potential earnings for a battery have grown year on year.
The project has not advanced as fast as it could have due to complications with access to the privately owned power line. Nevertheless, your Company and its new partner are progressing the engineering work required to connect generation to the power line. The potential cash flows make this a very worthwhile project and I will provide more detail in the near future.
Turning now to our core mission – the development and commercialisation of the SiBox technology. I have been very encouraged by the progress being made by our experienced and dedicated team of scientist and engineers. Over the next few months they will construct the first SiBox module on budget and schedule despite the supply chain disruptions experienced by our international component manufacturers. This will validate the first module of this groundbreaking technology so it can be scaled up for industrial scale operation.
Our research and development team continues to develop the next generation of storage for SiBox, and last week we filed a PCT patent application for that technology. The aim is a low cost, versatile storage product that can be bulk manufactured. This will deliver a unique and commercial product that can be slotted into existing industrial processes.
Why are we doing this? What is the ultimate value driver for shareholders? While heat energy is important for electricity generation, there is a much larger global market for clean industrial processing currently supplied by the burning of natural gas. In dollar terms this means that replacing even a fraction of heat supplied by gas would be a major value driver for SiBox and your Company.
This commercial outlook for our technology in global high temperature industrial processing is being quantified by Dr Mahesh Venkataraman, our Technology Manager, and is part of your Company’s funding agreement with our technology development partners. This work will establish our outlook for decades of growth based on the penetration of our technology as the world decarbonises. I look forward to reporting the results.
Before I say a few words on the corporate changes, I want to pay tribute to Dr Jordan Parham who is leaving to take a senior position with the Heavy Industry Low-carbon Transition Cooperative Research Centre, to which 1414 Degrees is a contributor. As COO Jordan evaluated the previous version of our technology and put together the technical team to successfully develop the Sibox technology. More recently he has been focusing on the Aurora Project. We wish Jordan every success knowing he will be very aware of the potential of 1414 Degrees technology to contribute to the decarbonising of industry.
I want to comment on the corporate changes and disruption over the past two years. I have been dismayed at the decline of market confidence as evidenced in the share price. I am a major shareholder and my concerns and advice to the outgoing directors were not heeded to the point where shareholders encouraged me to come out of retirement to restructure the board and restore investor confidence. This meeting can decisively make clear that shareholder value is the primary objective for our board and executives.
Your team in 1414 Degrees is concentrating on moving forward to deliver the value inherent in our projects and technology. This does not mean that the experiences of the past years are not valuable or important. Quite the contrary, our engineers and staff have been able to progress our SiBox technology faster and with much greater confidence using their knowledge gained in construction and operation of our GasTESS and prototypes. And this confidence has impressed our partners and allows me to reassure shareholders about our prospects.
Thank you and I look forward to reporting major progress in the next 12 months.
Dr Kevin Moriarty BSc (Hons); PhD; MAusIMM
Chairman