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On the right side of the renewable & reliable energy market

One of the most interesting investment opportunities gaining traction with traders is…
The post On the right side of the renewable & reliable energy…

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Source: Alkaline Fuel Cell Power Corp.

One of the most interesting investment opportunities gaining traction with traders is the combined heat and power (CHP) market. It sees energy from a single source located near the point of consumption that can use a variety of fuels to generate power at the point of use.

This is unique as it means that energy which would normally be lost in the generation, transmission, and distribution process can be recovered and utilized to provide heating and/or cooling.

Studies provide compelling background, indicating that North America’s CHP industry is projected to reach more than US$800 million. The market is expected to grow from an estimated US$26.6 billion to US$35.2 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 5.8% globally.

“PWWR to the people”:

Focused on the development, production, and ultimate commercialization of micro-combined heat and power (micro-CHP) systems and back-up and off-grid generators based on alkaline fuel cell technology, Alkaline Fuel Cell Power Corp. (“AFCP”) (NEO:PWWR; OTCQB: ALKFF) is utilizing emerging technology to reduce the non-renewable energy demand in buildings for peak load, back-up and on-demand electricity.

Fuel cell-based cogeneration has exciting prospects for building applications, even at relatively low heat demand. This is due to their partial load behavior, which is entirely different compared to other micro-CHP technologies.

Within the fuel cell technologies suitable for small scale CHP or micro-CHP, the existing configuration of an alkaline fuel cell system is analyzed. This model of the alkaline fuel cell system with an optimized control strategy is used to compare its part load behavior to other micro-CHP technologies.

The advantages of MICRO-CHP vs the Tesla Powerwall:

Source: Alkaline Fuel Cell Power Corp.

In a media release on the company’s recent financial performance, Chief Executive Officer, Frank Carnevale stated that the company is diversifying its investments into more immediate revenue generating opportunities, such as its CHP assets and generator assets, and improving its ability to quickly bring its fuel cells to market.

“Investors want a more de-risked investment platform, and we’re on our way to delivering.”

In an interview with Market Herald editorial, Frank elaborated on how quickly hydrogen could transform the capital market landscape in the near future.

“You can have slow down from a recession, a pandemic; but the destruction of our planet, these things don’t slow down. Hydrogen is a big solution, getting to net zero is critical. If anything, it’s speeding up. So personally, what a great time to get involved in the hydrogen economy and what it can be.”

The technology:

Source: Alkaline Fuel Cell Power Corp.

The Alkaline Fuel Cell is the most competitive and efficient fuel cell solution to fill the increasing consumer demand trend for clean energy.

It is tailored for the residential and small/medium sized power markets with hydrogen-powered alkaline fuel cell technology with zero CO2 emissions. Its fuel cell manufacturing technology is very cost effective, allowing for high volume production.

The company is also developing fuel cell generators for off-grid and back-up power markets, commencing with a 4kW generator, followed by a 10kW generator. The fuel cells are expected to be integrated into larger configurations of 10 kW fuel cell stacks, which range in generator size from 10kW up to 100kW.

One of the most exciting facets to its business is the PWWR Flow Stream division. The company’s PWWR Flow CHP Division is active with revenue generating contracts and a pipeline of proposals. The systems are built for multi-residential and commercial applications and offer reduced air emissions compared to alternatives. It is cost effective at producing electricity and heating / cooling, while maintaining its connection to the grid for peak time use. It can also be designed to provide back-up power supply during power outages.

Business highlights:

In mid-August 2022, the company filed its financial and operating results for the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2022. AFCP realized significant progress and advancements during Q2 2022.

Roughly 5% increase in Total Assets over the first two quarters of 2022 from $8.968 million to $9.413 millionAchieved a 71%reduction in year-over-year quarterly operating expenses compared to Q2 2021, positioning AFCP to benefit from a much lower monthly cash burn rateRecorded a significantly lower net loss of $1.4 million in Q2 2022 compared to a net loss of $5.0 million in Q2 2021, primarily due to a decrease in stock-based compensation with partial offsets attributable to increased activities during 2022Initial preliminary revenue generation of $46.5 thousand from the partial quarter from the PWRR Flow business and the corresponding ~$1 million in equipment value from the operating entityExited the quarter with working capital of $2.2 million and cash on hand of $3.1 million compared to working capital of $6.1 million and cash on hand of $5.9 million at December 31, 2021

In April 2022 the company acquired the CHP assets and project pipeline, previously known as AI Renewable, which served to expand the AFCP portfolio and diversify its offerings. This acquisition and its subsequent success has served as one of AFCP’s top milestones this year so far, and is already generating recurring revenue.

Today, the CHP division is known as PWWR Flow Streams, and it uses a clean and/or renewable single fuel energy technology to generate both electricity and heat. PWWR Flow assets deliver efficiency improvements of over 20% with reduced costs to customers in multi-residential and commercial applications. AFCP’s CHP brand in Canada has also contracted existing CHP assets in Toronto and has an additional pipeline of potential contracts valued at over $50 million currently in development.

Among these contracts, the company announced on August 16, 2022 that PWWR Flow would be advancing a CHP project of approximately $2.2 million in capital for a condominium in mid-town Toronto, Canada. This CHP Project is expected to generate more than $16 million in total revenue for PWWR Flow over a 25-year Energy Service Agreement (ESA) timeframe. It would produce electricity and heat on a 24/7 basis for the baseload of the condominium. The electricity produced will be sold to the Condo Corp at up to 20% discount to the market price that the Condo Corp would otherwise pay to their local electricity distribution company, which brings them significant savings. The heat produced will be sold at the price equivalent to the condominium’s current heating cost. It is a high-efficiency CHP system with estimated annual efficiency of approximately 75%.

In a media release on this news for investors, CEO Carnevale stated that the PWWR Flow brand is positioned to deliver more immediate revenue and contribute to earnings for the company as a complement to its longer-term, hydrogen-powered alkaline fuel cells.

“We are actively moving through our $50 million sales pipeline of CHP projects, and we have already begun discussions to grow beyond it.”

The company forecasts that this project will reach commercial operation in about a year. CEO Carnevale indicated that this is just one of many projects planned by AFCP.

It is anticipated that, when all of the potential PWWR Flow CHP systems are in commercial operation, gross revenue could be up to approximately $16.61 million, potential EBITDA could be up to $7.68 million and potential net income up to $1.64 million.

Fuel cells for off-grid and back-up generator markets:

The company is supplementing its 4kW CHP fuel cell development by advancing development of a range of fuel cell generators that target more immediate revenue opportunities.

The company is developing fuel cell generators of varying power output capacities to satisfy off-grid and back-up generator markets, including fuel cell configurations with an expected stacked range between 10kW and 100kW systems.

The company plans to collaborate with businesses in the market to gain access to assembly, sales, marketing, and maintenance capabilities for customers, to target systems that include:

Cell towers / weather stationsHighways / rail monitoringRescue & MilitaryResidentialDatacentre / hospital / industrial

CEO Carnevale sat down with Sabrina Cuthbert to discuss AFCP’s plans.

“By leveraging our existing staff and resources in Belgium and Czech Republic, we anticipate being able to generate revenue earlier by selling our fuel cells into the burgeoning generator market.”

Outlook:

Looking out to the rest of the year and beyond, AFCP is working to diversify and strengthen its portfolio of assets. The company has identified numerous targets and goals that the team can realize across multiple lines of the business.

On top of enhancing its relatively stable revenue stream, the company is advancing its future-forward vision to commercialize this advanced hydrogen fuel cell technology to meet the massive global market need.

The company is working to enhance its financial flexibility by exploring opportunities to leverage flow-through shares to minimize equity requirements for the ongoing development and advancement of CHP projects. In addition, the company wants to source and secure working capital for strategic acquisitions and growth capital.

AFCP’s team seeks to identify, support, and execute on strategic acquisitions of additional attractive energy assets, earnings-positive service companies in the power and energy space, and/or synergistic clean technology assets or companies.

AFCP looks forward to the continued growth of its PWWR Flow stream division and is expanding its asset installation base to leverage ongoing revenue and earnings generated as it continues to develop $50 million worth of projects in its pipeline over the next 5 years.

Source: Alkaline Fuel Cell Power Corp.

Core to its business, the company is also progressing the commercialization of Fuel Cell Power NV and aiming to achieve its next critical milestone on the path to realizing a fully functioning 4kW fuel cell CHP prototype in the coming quarter.

The company will accelerate and ramp up efforts to bring fuel cells to market globally and develop and implement strategies to establish large-scale and cost-effective fuel cell manufacturing capabilities. The team is also nurturing strategic partnerships for the piloting and deployment of fuel cells in North America.

Meet the team:

Speaking with the Market Herald’s editorial team, CEO Carnevale elaborated on what drew him to Alkaline Fuel Cell Power Corp.

“I’ve worked on both sides of the electric meter. I’ve worked the grid side of the meter, including gas companies, electric companies and their acquisitions, mergers, and business models, all the way down to the customer side of the meter from energy efficiency, supply, and renewable energy from waste. Expanding on that is the energy efficiency of the delivery behind the meter.  Over the course of 25 years, I’ve had a number of roles and mandates, all of which have culminated in my ability to deploy a fuel cell.

Frank said that his experience gained from these companies and roles allowed him to fully understand the opportunity that lies with Alkaline Fuel Cell Power Corp.

“This is how we’re now going to take our market share. It is just a great culmination, even working with municipalities, knowing what motivates governments and politicians as well as the average person. Having that customer element, and combining it with the industry element of how they have to make their money and deploy their capital gives us a true leg up. You understand the workings of the industry and where you think you can generate revenue from it. We are excited to take advantage of the realities of the energy transition for average people, thus our tagline: power to the people!”

He is joined by Chief Operating Officer, Jo Verstappen, who has vast experience in production methodology, organization, and business development for new products. His experience is vital to structuring the company and personnel, as well as ensuring the company will have a sizeable footprint in the hydrogen market.

The company’s Chief Financial Officer, Joel Dumaresq has 30 years of experience in the financial sector. For the last 12 years, he has been the Managing Director of the Vancouver-based private equity firm, Matrix Partners Inc. His executive management experience in the oil and gas sector ranges from the United Kingdom, East Africa and Asia. He has been instrumental in raising more than US$100 million for oil and gas ventures from public markets and industry farm-downs. He has extensive expertise in mergers and acquisitions and previously worked in a financial and investment banking role with RBC Dominion Securities. He is also the Corporate Secretary, CFO and a Director of AFCP.

In addition, Carnevale has recently brought on Carmine Marcello, former CEO of Hydro One Inc., as an Advisor to AFCP. Hydro One has a market cap of over $20 billion and over $23 billion in assets. He served in numerous executive roles from 2003, including Asset Management and Strategy and Planning.

Investment summary:

Customer-centric behind-the-meter clean technologies, whether natural gas driven combustion engines or alkaline fuel cells, look like a win for the every-day consumers since they can be deployed quickly and cost-effectively. AFCP’s drive to deliver affordable, renewable and reliable energy assets to customers through the global energy transition to a carbon neutral economy, has the differentiators to gain their market share of delivering Power to the People.

Supported by favourable regulatory policies toward carbon reduction and energy efficiency, combined with rising demand for captive power generation and growing consumer inclination toward sustainable energy, the future is bright for Alkaline Fuel Cell Power Corp.

With these factors combined, AFCP can expect a supportive environment to continue deploying its PWWR Flow systems to customers across North America. This would provide a stable revenue stream for the company while the team continues to develop its advanced hydrogen fuel cell technology and bring ‘PWWR to the People’.

For more on the AFCP, visit fuelcellpower.com.

FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by The Market Herald.

The post On the right side of the renewable & reliable energy market appeared first on The Market Herald.

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Many CDC Blunders Exaggerated Severity Of COVID-19: Study

Many CDC Blunders Exaggerated Severity Of COVID-19: Study

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Centers…

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Many CDC Blunders Exaggerated Severity Of COVID-19: Study

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made at least 25 statistical or numerical errors during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the overwhelming majority exaggerated the severity of the pandemic, according to a new study.

Researchers who have been tracking CDC errors compiled 25 instances where the agency offered demonstrably false information. For each instance, they analyzed whether the error exaggerated or downplayed the severity of COVID-19.

Of the 25 instances, 20 exaggerated the severity, the researchers reported in the study, which was published ahead of peer review on March 23.

The CDC has expressed significant concern about COVID-19 misinformation. In order for the CDC to be a credible source of information, they must improve the accuracy of the data they provide,” the authors wrote.

The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.

Most Errors Involved Children

Most of the errors were about COVID-19’s impact on children.

In mid-2021, for instance, the CDC claimed that 4 percent of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 were kids. The actual percentage was 0.04 percent. The CDC eventually corrected the misinformation, months after being alerted to the issue.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky falsely told a White House press briefing in October 2021 that there had been 745 COVID-19 deaths in children, but the actual number, based on CDC death certificate analysis, was 558.

Walensky and other CDC officials also falsely said in 2022 that COVID-19 was a top five cause of death for children, citing a study that gathered CDC data instead of looking at the data directly. The officials have not corrected the false claims.

Other errors include the CDC claiming in 2022 that pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations were “increasing again” when they’d actually peaked two weeks earlier; CDC officials in 2023 including deaths among infants younger than 6 months old when reporting COVID-19 deaths among children; and Walensky on Feb. 9, 2023, exaggerating the pediatric death toll before Congress.

“These errors suggest the CDC consistently exaggerates the impact of COVID-19 on children,” the authors of the study said.

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Tyler Durden Fri, 03/24/2023 - 20:20

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Government

NIH awards researchers $7.5 million to create data support center for opioid use disorder and pain management research

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – March 24, 2023 – Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have been awarded a five-year, $7.5 million grant…

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – March 24, 2023 – Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have been awarded a five-year, $7.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Helping End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative.

Credit: Wake Forest University School of Medicine

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – March 24, 2023 – Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have been awarded a five-year, $7.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Helping End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative.

The NIH HEAL initiative, which launched in 2018, was created to find scientific solutions to stem the national opioid and pain public health crises. The funding is part of the HEAL Data 2 Action (HD2A) program, designed to use real-time data to guide actions and change processes toward reducing overdoses and improving opioid use disorder treatment and pain management.

With the support of the grant, researchers will create a data infrastructure support center to assist HD2A innovation projects at other institutions across the country. These innovation projects are designed to address gaps in four areas—prevention, harm reduction, treatment of opioid use disorder and recovery support.

“Our center’s goal is to remove barriers so that solutions can be more streamlined and rapidly distributed,” said Meredith C.B. Adams, M.D., associate professor of anesthesiology, biomedical informatics, physiology and pharmacology, and public health sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

By monitoring opioid overdoses in real time, researchers will be able to identify trends and gaps in resources in local communities where services are most needed.

“We will collect and analyze data that will inform prevention and treatment services,” Adams said. “We’re shifting chronic pain and opioid care in communities to quickly offer solutions.”

The center will also develop data related resources, education and training related to substance use, pain management and the reduction of opioid overdoses.

According to the CDC, there was a 29% increase in drug overdose deaths in the U.S.  in 2020, and nearly 75% of those deaths involved an opioid.

“Given the scope of the opioid crises, which was only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s imperative that we improve and create new prevention strategies,” Adams said. “The funding will create the infrastructure for rapid intervention.”


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International

How They Convinced Trump To Lock Down

How They Convinced Trump To Lock Down

Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via Brownstone Institute,

An enduring mystery for three years is how…

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How They Convinced Trump To Lock Down

Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via Brownstone Institute,

An enduring mystery for three years is how Donald Trump came to be the president who shut down American society for what turned out to be a manageable respiratory virus, setting off an unspeakable crisis with waves of destructive fallout that continue to this day. 

Let’s review the timeline and offer some well-founded speculations about what happened. 

On March 9, 2020, Trump was still of the opinion that the virus could be handled by normal means. 

Two days later, he changed his tune. He was ready to use the full power of the federal government in a war on the virus. 

What changed? Deborah Birx reports in her book that Trump had a friend die in a New York hospital and this is what shifted his opinion. Jared Kushner reports that he simply listened to reason. Mike Pence says he was persuaded that his staff would respect him more. No question (and based on all existing reports) that he found himself surrounded by “trusted advisors” amounting to about 5 or so people (including Mike Pence and Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb)

It was only a week later when Trump issued the edict to close all “indoor and outdoor venues where people congregate,” initiating the biggest regime change in US history that flew in the face of all rights and liberties Americans had previously taken for granted. It was the ultimate in political triangulation: as John F. Kennedy cut taxes, Nixon opened China, and Clinton reformed welfare, Trump shut down the economy he promised to revive. This action confounded critics on all sides. 

A month later, Trump said his decision to have “turned off” the economy saved millions of lives, later even claiming to have saved billions. He has yet to admit error. 

Even as late as June 23rd of that year, Trump was demanding credit for having followed all of Fauci’s recommendations. Why do they love him and hate me, he wanted to know. 

Something about this story has never really added up. How could one person have been so persuaded by a handful of others such as Fauci, Birx, Pence, and Kushner and his friends? He surely had other sources of information – some other scenario or intelligence – that fed into his disastrous decision. 

In one version of events, his advisors simply pointed to the supposed success of Xi Jinping in enacting lockdowns in Wuhan, which the World Health Organization claimed had stopped infections and brought the virus under control. Perhaps his advisors flattered Trump with the observation that he is at least as great as the president of China so he should be bold and enact the same policies here. 

One problem with this scenario is timing. The Oval Office meetings that preceded his March 16, 2020, edict took place the weekend of the 14th and 15th, Friday and Saturday. It was already clear by the 11th that Trump was ready for lockdowns. This was the same day as Fauci’s deliberately misleading testimony to the House Oversight Committee in which he rattled the room with predictions of Hollywood-style carnage. 

On the 12th, Trump shut all travel from Europe, the UK, and Australia, causing huge human pile-ups at international airports. On the 13th, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a classified document that transferred control of pandemic policy from the CDC to the National Security Council and eventually the Department of Homeland Security. By the time that Trump met with Fauci and Birx in that legendary weekend, the country was already under quasi-martial law. 

Isolating the date in the trajectory here, it is apparent that whatever happened to change Trump occurred on March 10, 2020, the day after his Tweet saying there should be no shutdowns and one day before Fauci’s testimony. 

That something very likely revolves around the most substantial discovery we’ve made in three years of investigations. It was Debbie Lerman who first cracked the code: Covid policy was forged not by the public-health bureaucracies but by the national-security sector of the administrative state. She has further explained that this occurred because of two critical features of the response: 1) the belief that this virus came from a lab leak, and 2) the vaccine was the biosecurity countermeasure pushed by the same people as the fix. 

Knowing this, we gain greater insight into 1) why Trump changed his mind, 2) why he has never explained this momentous decision and otherwise completely avoids the topic, and 3) why it has been so unbearably difficult to find out any information about these mysterious few days other than the pablum served up in books designed to earn royalties for authors like Birx, Pence, and Kushner. 

Based on a number of second-hand reports, all available clues we have assembled, and the context of the times, the following scenario seems most likely. On March 10, and in response to Trump’s dismissive tweet the day before, some trusted sources within and around the National Security Council (Matthew Pottinger and Michael Callahan, for example), and probably involving some from military command and others, came to Trump to let him know a highly classified secret. 

Imagine a scene from Get Smart with the Cone of Silence, for example. These are the events in the life of statecraft that infuse powerful people with a sense of their personal awesomeness. The fate of all of society rests on their shoulders and the decisions they make at this point. Of course they are sworn to intense secrecy following the great reveal. 

The revelation was that the virus was not a textbook virus but something far more threatening and terrible. It came from a research lab in Wuhan. It might in fact be a bioweapon. This is why Xi had to do extreme things to protect his people. The US should do the same, they said, and there is a fix available too and it is being carefully guarded by the military. 

It seems that the virus had already been mapped in order to make a vaccine to protect the population. Thanks to 20 years of research on mRNA platforms, they told him,  this vaccine can be rolled out in months, not years. That means that Trump can lock down and distribute vaccines to save everyone from the China virus, all in time for the election. Doing this would not only assure his reelection but guarantee that he would go down in history as one of the greatest US presidents of all time. 

This meeting might only have lasted an hour or two – and might have included a parade of people with the highest-level security clearances – but it was enough to convince Trump. After all, he had battled China for two previous years, imposing tariffs and making all sorts of threats. It was easy to believe at that point that China might have initiated biological warfare as retaliation. That’s why he made the decision to use all the power of the presidency to push a lockdown under emergency rule. 

To be sure, the Constitution does not allow him to override the discretion of the states but with the weight of the office complete with enough funding and persuasion, he could make it happen. And thus did he make the fateful decision that not only wrecked his presidency but the country too, imposing harms that will last a generation. 

It only took a few weeks for Trump to become suspicious about what happened. For weeks and months, he toggled between believing that he was tricked and believing that he did the right thing. He had already approved another 30 days of lockdowns and even inveighed against Georgia and later Florida for opening. He went so far as to claim that no state could open without his approval. 

He did not fully change his mind until August, when Scott Atlas revealed the whole con to him. 

There is another fascinating feature to this entirely plausible scenario. Even as Trump’s advisors were telling him that this could be a bioweapon leaked from the lab in China, we had Anthony Fauci and his cronies going to great lengths to deny it was a lab leak (even if they believed that it was). This created an interesting situation. The NIH and those surrounding Fauci were publicly insisting that the virus was of zoonotic origin, even as Trump’s circle was telling the president that it should be regarded as a bioweapon. 

Fauci belonged to both camps, which suggests that Trump very likely knew of Fauci’s deception all along: the “noble lie” to protect the public from knowing the truth. Trump had to be fine with that. 

Gradually following the lockdown edicts and the takeover by the Department of Homeland Security, in cooperation with a very hostile CDC, Trump lost power and influence over his own government, which is why his later Tweets urging a reopening fell on deaf ears. To top it off, the vaccine failed to arrive in time for the election. This is because Fauci himself delayed the rollout until after the election, claiming that the trials were not racially diverse enough. Thus Trump’s gambit completely failed, despite all the promises of those around him that it was a guaranteed way to win reelection.

To be sure, this scenario cannot be proven because the entire event – certainly the most dramatic political move in at least a generation and one with unspeakable costs for the country – remains cloaked in secrecy. Not even Senator Rand Paul can get the information he needs because it remains classified. If anyone thinks the Biden approval of releasing documents will show what we need, that person is naive. Still, the above scenario fits all available facts and it is confirmed by second-hand reports from inside the White House. 

It’s enough for a great movie or a play of Shakespearean levels of tragedy. And to this day, none of the main players are speaking openly about it. 

Jeffrey A. Tucker is Founder and President of the Brownstone Institute. He is also Senior Economics Columnist for Epoch Times, author of 10 books, including Liberty or Lockdown, and thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/24/2023 - 17:40

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