Ceres Power Holdings PLC (LON:CWR) delivered 21% revenue growth in the year to the end of June despite the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic delaying some sales.
The fuel cell and electrochemical technology firm said the year saw revenue and other operating income increase to £19.9mln from £16.4mln the year before.
The order book is strong at £14mln while the pipeline of sales opportunities at the end of June stood at £54mln.
Gross profit improved to £13.8mln from £11.5mln the year before but adjusted underlying losses (EBITDA) widened slightly to £6.5mln from a loss of £5.9mln the preceding year as a result of further investment in the growth area of electrolysis for hydrogen.
In January, Ceres announced that early-stage testing of the application of its technology as a solid oxide electrolyser (SOEC) - essentially the process of reversing fuel cells to produce hydrogen and e-fuels from renewable energy – had delivered encouraging results, while in July it announced plans to invest £5mln in the current fiscal year to develop the deployment of its SOEC technology for hydrogen.
The loss before tax deepened to £9.7mln from £7.4mln in the previous reporting period.
"Trading since the period end has remained strong with good commercial progress with our partners globally. Bosch has now installed prototype products of its 10kW system utilising Ceres' technology at five locations in Germany while, despite an initial delay in the early part of 2020 due to the pandemic, good progress is now being made to validate Ceres's technology for transportation applications with Weichai's SOFC team in China,” said Phil Caldwell, the chief executive officer of Ceres Power.
"These developments, combined with the opportunities from our new, long term growth areas of electrolysis for hydrogen, mean that Ceres is very well positioned to build on the strong momentum generated during the period as we look to play our part in delivering clean energy technology to enable a net zero future," he added.
Caldwell said the company has not needed to make use of the UK government’s furlough programme and despite the restrictions on travel it continues to find effective ways of working with its commercial partners.
On the downside, the pandemic has had some impact on the supply chain but the company is monitoring this situation closely.
“If anything, the pandemic has brought into sharp focus the need for strong and sustainable growth to drive the global recovery and the EU and Germany have followed the lead of countries such as Japan and South Korea in setting out ambitious targets around hydrogen and fuel cell deployment,” Caldwell noted.