Wendy Diddell: So what we’re anticipating is that, the business will start improving again in the back half of calendar year 2024. In the calendar year 2025, we’re anticipating that will be a record year.
P. Ross Taylor: Yes, okay. Calendar 2025, that’s even better.
Wendy Diddell: Calendar, not fiscal year.
P. Ross Taylor: Calendar, right. Okay, so looking at that setup, is there any reason to believe that you should not be able to sustain or even improve profitability as you move back to record levels of revenue in that space?
Wendy Diddell: We absolutely can achieve that.
Edward Richardson: Yes, in addition to that, there’s a number of large programs out there on the GES side that would compensate for any continued comeback with that market. So there’s a lot of things in the pipeline that we really think will be added to that, that will get us back to these record profits we saw over the last year or so.
P. Ross Taylor: Okay. And Let’s move on to the GES space in Suzlon. They have about 7,000 towers. Each tower…
Edward Richardson: They currently have about 9,000 total turbines. We have a bi-weekly call with the group in India. The first Phase I will be 7,000 turbines and those are all in India actually. And we’re all set up to do that beta testing the third week in October, so end of next week or week after I guess. And we’ve tested the product in a Suzlon turbine here in the states with one of our owner-operative partners and it has worked very, very well. So we’re really excited about that program, getting an OEM and working with them. In addition to that, they also own a number of GE sites, which obviously the ULTRA3000 was designed for. So we look at that program to be very strong going forward, absolutely.
P. Ross Taylor: Okay, so when we look at the demand for your ultracapacitors, on a GE side it’s one for one, right? So that’s — if there are 18 batteries that’s 18 ultracapacitors. On the Suzlon, from my understanding of the technology, it’s like a one for two. So if there’s 9,000 towers, that would mean you need something — each tower having 18, or the equivalent of, I’ll say 18, you’d end up needing something then in the neighborhood of 50,000 modules or something like that total. The 7,000 in India alone would be like 42,000 modules that you’d be looking at putting into that. Is that about right? seven times 18.
Edward Richardson: Yes, that’s close. So the Suzlon module is based on the ULTRA3000 technology, but it is a redesign specific for Suzlon, and there’s six modules in every Suzlon turbine versus 18 modules in every GE turbine. However, this product is a little more expensive than the ULTRA3000. So it’d be six times 7,000, which is what you came up with about 42,000 of these.
P. Ross Taylor: 42,000. And so we’re looking at that project, that opportunity alone, is probably something in the neighborhood of $34 million, $40 something million of revenues and operating profits, something like $14 million to $18 million out of that project alone.
Edward Richardson: Yes.
P. Ross Taylor: Okay. How long would it take you to fulfill an order for 42,000 ultrapapacitors?
Edward Richardson: Well, with the new manufacturing area, it’s just about resources. We get the people. Right now we can produce probably 5,000 to 6,000 a month. So it wouldn’t take that long.
P. Ross Taylor: So you can easily fulfill that inside a year and if you ramp up you could fulfill it in five months, six months or less type of situation.
Edward Richardson: Absolutely.
P. Ross Taylor: Okay. Cool. Unique about –
Edward Richardson: The large order we received when we started this program, they picked sites and they did a complete repower, meaning, they took all the lead acid batteries out and put these in. Some of these other owner-operators, it’s when they have a — one of the unique things about our product from the competition is that, you can put it in a turbine and keep. If you want to put two in, you can keep the other 16 batteries in the turbine until the warranty runs out or the batteries fail. So they replace them as the batteries fail versus just doing a sweep of every site. So that’s just a timing thing, but it’s great business and great program, great product.
P. Ross Taylor: Okay. And the technology with Siemens is a little different is it not? You’re saying it’s like one at the base, but it’s probably a much bigger more powerful one than what we’re seeing is — the economics might not be the same as times 18 for GE or maybe times six for Suzlon, but I would assume that’s a pretty valuable unit at the base of each Siemens tower.
Edward Richardson: Yes, so the UPS product is a different technology than the ULTRA3000. The ULTRA3000 is a pitch energy module. The UPS is an uninterrupted power supply. So there’s only one per turbine, but it’s five times the amount of an ULTRA3000. So that’s the Siemens design we’re working on right now. It’s for the UPS, not the ULTRA3000.
P. Ross Taylor: And that’s a similar margin?
