Shear Wind Inc. is reporting another financial loss.
The Bedford renewable energy company suffered a $1.7-million hit for the year ending Aug. 31, according to company documents filed with securities regulators on Monday.
Last year, Shear Wind reported a loss of $938,975, for the same period.
Part of the company’s reported loss is attributable to $500,000 it had to pay Nova Scotia Power for missing its deadline to generate electricity for the power company by the end of 2009. The penalty for missing the deadline was set in a contract Shear Wind signed with the utility in 2008.
Shear Wind, a publicly traded company formed in 2004, missed the deadline because the collapse of the financial markets forced it to delay the start of construction of its $150-million wind turbine park near New Glasgow. Called Glen Dhu Wind Energy, it was supposed to be in operation by the end of 2009.
The company is on schedule to meet its current contractual obligation to provide 60 megawatts of green electricity to Nova Scotia Power by the end of March. As part of that agreement, Shear Wind must provide the power company with 20 megawatts of wind-generated electricity, enough for about 6,000 homes, by the end of December.
Missing that deadline would be costly as Shear Wind has provided a $1.5-million performance security deposit to the utility.
As of last Friday, Shear Wind had installed nine wind turbines near Baileys Brook, Pictou County, and will begin delivering green electricity next week, Ian Tillard, the company’s chief operating officer, said last Friday.
For the year ending Aug. 31, Shear Wind reported expenses of $1.59 million, $586,033 for salaries and benefits and $232,983 for professional fees. Another $96,000 was spent on consulting fees, $35,000 was charged by an unnamed director for helping with various meetings and financing activities in 2009 that was not incurred in 2010.
Travel expenses were $70,121, up from $63,788 in the same period the previous year. The increase is attributed to the travelling Shear Wind officials did in relation to negotiations that resulted in a $27-million cash infusion last November by the Spanish conglomerate, Inveravante, in return for 62 per cent ownership of Shear Wind.
As of Aug. 31, the company had total assets of $60.6 million, according to the financial statements.
Shear Wind has other wind-power projects in various stages of development in New Brunswick and Alberta.
As of the end of August, the company had spent $3.9 million on wind development. Of this total, $2.9 million has been spent in Alberta, $14,603 with respect to land controlled in Nova Scotia, $867,387 in New Brunswick and $153,520 in Saskatchewan, according to the management discussion and analysis filed with regulators.
The stock was trading up three cents Monday, trading at 20 cents share on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1218397.html
No comments:
Post a Comment