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EQTEC CEO: 'Companies like us are becoming the prize'

2 March, 2021

EU

InfrastructureMarket Update

inspiratia recently caught up with David Palumbo, CEO of the advanced gasification specialist EQTEC to talk about project plans, the cleantech frenzy in public markets, and unsolicited proposals from infrastructure funds

It has been a busy time of late for EQTEC, with planning approval granted for its 25MW Billingham, UK, waste-to-energy plant at the end of January, following on from its acquisition of a similar development project in Deeside, Wales in December.

On the back of that deal, the company also last month inked a cooperation agreement with land developer Logik Developments – which sold it the Deeside site – under which the pair will partner on a future portfolio of energy-from-waste plants in the UK.

And it was on this topic where Palumbo was keen to highlight the importance of such relationships.

"In the case of Logik, they are strategic land developers. This is a group that is very credible in their market and with strong relationships with blue-chip parties from the funding side," he says.

"We know of many sites that may have planning, or that could not have been executed before. Now we can go to Logik and say, 'could you take a look at that land deal, and we will take care of the technical side'.

"They are then able to go pitching for a deal, with EQTEC as a technology partner…for us it becomes another good pathway to growing our pipeline that makes EQTEC more interesting for owners-operators of these types of site."

Operating record

This latter point is also understood to be poised to play a part in the company's near-term strategy, with the news of the Billingham progress coming with mention of ongoing talks with a European waste-to-energy specialist over the potential provision of construction finance.

Turning that relationship into a concrete partnership with capital deployed into EQTEC's projects would not only be another vote of confidence for the company, but also for the growing niche but commercially robust position it occupies as an international company within the sustainable part of the waste-to-energy market.

Advanced gasification as a technology has experienced a history filled with a number of false-starts but, as he detailed in his appearance on inspiratia's Joint Venture podcast last year, Palumbo is focussed on making his company among the first to properly break through with its proven and patented technology and solutions for sustainable waste-to-energy projects. A key way to do this is to accrue a firm track record of successful operations (to date, four commercial plants have been built and are using EQTEC's advanced gasification technology) and it is setting itself apart as not only an advanced gasification technology innovator but one that leads or resources project funding, integrating technologies, engineering (mechanical, electrical, civil), procurement, construction management, commissioning and O&M.

Plus, the company is approaching engineering, procurement and construction contracts in a customised, package-driven approach rather than through one partner, not only creating local jobs but supporting the best local businesses for the work, too.

"We have advanced discussions with a European owner-operator of energy-from-waste for district heating infrastructure, and the reason why we are interesting is that they're very progressive, they understand that gasification in the past has not worked but they are impressed with the fact that we have operating hours at the level that we have and the end-to-end project capabilities," says Palumbo.

"What makes them speed up the relationship with us is the fact that we have the pathway to a pipeline. We can say to them that we have the gasification technology that can deliver the right operating hours and the right business case for them, but in addition to that there is £300-400 million worth of infrastructure that they could own."

Aside from those kinds of partnerships, there are other options currently occupying Palumbo's inbox, although ones that may not be taken up in the immediate future.

It will surprise few of you reading this that there is currently a lot of capital in the market for infrastructure opportunities and, according to Palumbo, advanced gasification is one of the sectors on the radar of investors.

"The interesting thing now is companies like us are becoming the prize," he says. "We now have one or two calls, if not more, a week which are unsolicited approaches from infrastructure funds saying they've got £400 million and want to invest in infrastructure.

"Or it's a family office saying they like what the company's been doing and want to invest, when is the next round? Or a company saying they are invested in another technology which is complementary to ours.

"Now we have more alternatives than ever; we can invest directly in projects, we are now of a size of market cap that we could look to use our own balance sheet to finance the small projects but also provide the relevant insurance-backed warranties to secure competitive funding for the larger projects."

Retail hype

But it is not only the specialist investors who are eyeing this space. One needs only to casually glance at business pages at the moment to spot the huge upswell in IPOs, share issuances, and the share prices of almost all the already-listed cleantech or sustainable energy companies.

At the extreme end you have the bloating of Tesla's share price, seemingly sustained by an online fan-base of devotees buying ever more shares even as the price rises. It would not take long to search around social media (particularly on Twitter and Reddit) to find this phenomenon in action, and it has existed for long before the recent GameSpot machinations that exploded into the mainstream.

Others also want in on the action it seems, and the current favoured ploy is to conduct an IPO through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), with groups like hydrogen truck specialist Nikola Motor and the Indian solar and wind IPP ReNew Power among the high profile names to have gone down this route.

As an already-listed company, EQTEC too has experienced this wave of attention as retail and institutional investors seek to climb on board the sustainability mega-trend. On top of this, these investors are often not merely passive pot-builders, despite usually being part-time traders.

"We've developed a really good following; they reach out from all channels and introduce us to local government [for instance]," says Palumbo. "They are true advocates of the company.

"The small investor has many more platforms to be heard through social media, some of which were not there before. Now they have the tools to quickly organise and we are seeing the rise of the 'stakeholder investor' which we believe is of particular importance in our sector."

Hydrogen

One area that has been attracting huge attention, on both social media, in the SPAC space, and pretty much everywhere else within the investment community, is hydrogen.

And this is a segment that EQTEC could potentially pivot into given the syngas it produces in its plants is rich in hydrogen which could be extracted for use in a variety of applications. But this is perhaps something that could come a little further down the line for the company.

"I'm usually quite tame about our own capability in hydrogen, because I think there's too much of that noise in the market already," says Palumbo.

"I think it is really 10-years-plus before the market is anywhere near to this being a strong business case. [But] between 40-45% of our syngas, depending on feedstock, is hydrogen and separating the hydrogen is something we have done, we know how to do.

"[But] we say that it is not mature enough a market and we already have a significant and growing pipeline."

For now, EQTEC is firmly focused on its core markets and developments either in construction or being developed to that stage. These are in mainland Europe and Ireland, where plant and agricultural waste biomass takes precedence, in the UK – where three RDF from MSW plants are in development – and one venture in California for waste forestry wood. And there is additional pipeline in those markets, looking further ahead.

However, with the pace that various trends are moving within the clean energy and wider sustainability spaces, and as countries flesh out net zero targets with ever more detail, other opportunities cannot perhaps be ruled out. And the gathering synergies between various renewable technologies – as we have seen with offshore wind and hydrogen, for instance – will certainly be an area to observe with interest over the coming months and years.

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