Greentech Lead Canada: Ballard Power Systems, a provider of clean technology solutions, has earned revenues of $12.3 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013– an increase of 22 percent compared to Q1 2012.
Revenue for the Telecom Backup Power segment was increased by 444 percent to $6.4 million. The revenue increase was driven by higher system shipments of 287, up from 28. During the assessment period, the company shipped the 500th methanol-fuelled system, following addition of this product to the ElectraGen portfolio in August 2012.
Ballard Power Systems also achieved a record production level of methanol-fuelled systems at the Company’s plant in Tijuana, Mexico. Investment of $2 million was made by Azure of Beijing, China in Dantherm Power, Ballard’s backup power system subsidiary, for a 10 percent ownership position.
John Sheridan, president and CEO said, “Q1 results reflect a positive start to the year for Ballard, with a markedly stronger balance sheet and improvements in all key financial performance metrics.”
In Material Handling, Ballard Power Systems reported revenue of $0.9 million, a decrease of 27 percent. Plug Power GenDrive system shipments were made in the quarter to customers including Lowe’s and Sysco. Plug Power announced an order for 65 GenDrive systems from new customer Ace Hardware.
Engineering Services revenue decreased by 22 percent to $2.6 million. The company continued contract work with AFCC and Mercedes-Benz Fuel Cells and signed a long-term contract with Volkswagen AG, with an expected value in the range of C$60-100 million.
Development Stage Markets (Bus & Distributed Generation) revenue decreased by 44 percent to $2.4 million. During the period Ballard shipped three fuel cell bus modules, two to Van Hool in Europe and one to CTTransit in Hartford, CT.
The company also announced agreement for 8 additional fuel cell bus modules to Van Hool in 2013 for commissioning of fuel cell buses to be used in European public transit service. This will bring the total number of Van Hool European fuel cell buses to 22.
Additionally the company announced C$2 million in funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) for a one-year extension to a fuel cell bus module development project aimed at furthering commercialization, and announced the sale of 175 kilowatt distributed generation systems to Blue Lake Rancheria in Humboldt County, CA and to Azure in China.
The company’s gross margin was 24 percent, on track with expectations and an improvement of 3-points.