Mixed Greens: Ceramic taps Chinese investor

Australia’s Ceramic Fuel Cells has taken on board a new Chinese partner and major shareholder after agreeing to $6 million funding agreement with Guangdong-based Chaozhou Three-Circle (Group) Co.

CCTC, which manufacturers electronic components and advanced ceramics and is one of Ceramic’s key suppliers, will buy 100 million new ordinary shares priced at 6c each, the equivalent of about 6.8 per cent stake. The issue price is the same as the $16.9 million rights issue that closes next week, but above the most recent closing price of 5.5c.

Ceramic has outsourced the commercial manufacturing of its fuel cell components to CCTC, which has constructed a purpose-built manufacturing equipment specifically to make Ceramic’s fuel cells.
Ceramic is also working with CCTC to outsource other manufacturing processes and component supply, to increase volume and reduce its product costs.

In other news…

The world’s biggest coal producer, China’s Shenhua Group, clearly has one eye focused on the low-carbon energy future, the company revealing on Tuesday that it will test energy-storage systems – using Altair Nanotechnologies’ lithium-titanate batteries – at a wind farm in China. Bloomberg reports that US-based Altair is developing the storage systems with Shenhua Science & Technology and National Institute of Clean-and-Low- Carbon Energy, which are both units of Shenhua Group.

America’s Natural Resources Defense Council Planning has estimated that building and operating a typical utility-scale wind farm creates 1,079 jobs over its lifetime. A 250MW project generates 522 construction jobs, 432 positions in manufacturing, 80 for planning and development, 18 sales slots and 27 for operations, the New York-based environmental group said in a report on Tuesday – adding that these jobs would be threatened if Congress did not extend the US wind production tax credit.