Dominovas Energy (OTC:DNRG) emerged as a publicly traded entity only 18 months ago, formed through the absorption of Western Standard Energy. Since then the company’s mandate has been enormous, with management wrangling everything from public trading regulatory requirements and market-facing investor transparency, to the continuation of an ongoing sales effort that stretches back to the earliest days of Dominovas as a private company. The procedural development of key OEM partnerships, vital to logistical throughput for the company’s RUBICON™ SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) system, has also been secured.
This last point is key, as Dominovas is currently preparing for Q4 2016 deployment of its revolutionary SOFC clean energy solution, as per the multi-year, guaranteed power provider agreement with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), facilitated by Dominovas being a Power Africa initiative (USAID) partner. Power Africa looks to bring 60 million new connections and 30,000 megawatts of advanced, cleaner energy technologies online in order to power the continent and increase overall access to power. The initiative has a whopping $20 billion in private sector commitments behind it from over 100 partners, leveraged by $7 billion from the U.S., as well as $9 billion from other entities such as the World Bank Group.
With 4,100 MW expected from already closed transactions, Power Africa is the tip of the spear in brining next-gen energy tech to Africa, and Dominovas is on the line to provide 206 MW of the overall target to the DRC using its proprietary RUBICON fuel cell technology. Able to operate from a wide variety of fuel types, which can range from hydrocarbon fuels, to bio-derived fuels and even pure hydrogen (the most efficient source), RUBICON also does internal reforming of hydrocarbons, helping to avoid coking and sulfur poisoning problems. And because the high temperatures of RUBICON SOFC technology also offers premium kinetics with nonprecious materials like nickel, there is abundant high-quality waste heat for co-gen.
With the abundance of remote locations throughout Africa in need of power, such efficient, fuel-flexible, modular and scalable systems as the RUBICON will continue to find fast favor among local governments and private sector operators. Especially considering the unit’s ability to be dropped in right next to the end-user(s) and thus eliminate high-cost infrastructure such as transmission lines and transformers, as well as drastically reducing associated security risks to such remote infrastructure. Add to these significant benefits the unit’s ability to do co-generation and you have an extremely approachable solution that is directly accessible via Power Africa for multiple other regions across the continent.
The company’s recent tour of sub-Saharan Africa – where key personnel discussed ongoing and prospective RUBICON deployments, meeting and shaking hands across the DRC, Mozambique and South Africa – was a huge success, with the auspices of Power Africa opening many doors for Dominovas. Management was quite taken with just how receptive and motivated key private and public sector entities were when it came to embracing the RUBICION technology. With everyone from top sector operators to local government officials showing extraordinary enthusiasm when it came to getting their hands on such advanced fuel cell technology, in order to meet the growing needs of underlying populations. Dominovas also met with top Power Africa financial institution partners during the trip, discussing the best ways to ensure financing requirements are met when it comes to rolling out this technology across the continent as quickly as possible.
According to the company’s August 13 conference call, the current plan for the RUBICON is for the systems to be built in Michigan, in collaboration with Delphi Automotive subsidiary, Delphi Automotive Systems, where the capacity and expertise exists to easily ramp up for longer-term objectives and growth prospects. Demand could escalate very quickly after the initial deployments and thus, Dominovas has also secured an engagement with Pyrenees Investments, to act as the company’s investment bank and placement agent for the preparation of a $10 million private placement of common stock. This private placement is designed to facilitate the company’s transition into a full-fledged manufacturing and deployment operator, as well as compensate for the sheer demand that exists when it comes to scalable, cost-effective fuel cell technology like the RUBICON.
The DRC deployment is designed to provide power for around 200,000 homes, but with so many more people across Africa still in dire need of power, fuel-flexible and eminently scalable RUBICON systems could see rapid deployment anywhere and everywhere adequate fuel sources are, or to which fuel can be easily transported. The 206 MW project for DRC, which astonishingly represents roughly 10 percent of all the fuel cells that have ever been built, is just the beginning of the story for Dominovas, and in order to meet the potential demand it will be vital for Dominovas to maintain a close working relationship with proven automotive manufacturer Delphi. Delphi has the capacity, combined with DNRG’s own fuel cell division, to meet not only the 206 MW required by the DRC, but many megawatts of subsequent demand to come from other governments in Africa, and around the world.
It is a monumental time for the fuel cell sector and Dominovas’ assemblage of the capacity to deliver multi-megawatt deployments, a virtual industry first, as well as the company’s quickly established footprint in Africa, should give investors a moment of pause to reflect on what may be in store for not only Dominovas, but the energy sector as a whole. The company’s fuel cell tech and Distributed Energy Power System (DEPS) approach could transform established power markets dominated by utilities, with the same disruptive force as emerging energy markets like Africa, offering a scalable, modular alternative that can be tailored to both location and fuel sources.
For more information visit www.dominovasenergy.com
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