Heliogen, Inc. (NYSE:HLGN) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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William Gross: One of the key benefits of our technology is that we can go to high temperatures. So of course, we can produce steam that our customers need. And of course we can produce electricity, which we need for green hydrogen. But we also can go all the way to 1,000 degrees centigrade and above. And at around 900 degrees to 1,000 degrees, you can perform calcination, not only of cement, but calcination of other very high-value materials like lithium extraction, other elements that are needed greatly for the electrification of vehicles and the whole revolution in new materials for energy storage. So we are working on projects in the calcination area. We don’t have any specific relationship with the cement company we can announce right now, but we have exciting news to come in the calcination area because our technology is so perfectly suited to that.

Rob Wertheimer: Okay, perfect. And then maybe, if I can, just one last one. How is the IRA affecting — I mean you mentioned one on Lancaster already, so it’s already had an impact. I don’t know if the equity partnership is identified or you’re still — you’re out looking. But just in general, you mentioned the shift towards North America. Is your pipeline changing? Is the prospect funnel changing meaningfully as the IRA has come into place? And then what sort of time frame might be reasonable for people to sort of digest all the potential incentives and to get projects underway? And I think I’ll stop there.

Christiana Obiaya: Yes, that’s a great question, Rob. I think we believe that the IRA essentially turbocharges a lot of areas that we saw being nascent, such as hydrogen. And that sort of thing is absolutely driving us to take a fresh look at how we prioritize opportunities, and it has brought more of our focus into projects in the U.S. And then the other thing that I’d say is we’ve had a lot of inbound engagement from equity investors and strategic counterparties on the hydrogen project opportunities that we have in front of us. That includes both Brenda and Lancaster. And so we’ve been really pleased to see that, and we anticipate that continuing, and we look forward to making progress on that. And so making more — steering more with you during the next couple of months.

William Gross: I would add one more thing too. Thank you, Christie. One more thing is that the fundamental things that account for customers and customer attraction are several fold. Number 1 is what is the cost of fuel? If the cost of fuel is really high, then we can beat that very handily with concentrated solar. If the cost of fuel is very low, then it’s more challenging. But cost of fuel is a big factor. Second factor is amount of sunshine. And that’s where the Southwest United States, Australia, Chile and other places really shine. But the third factor is government incentives. You take all 3 of those things together, and that makes your project economics work out. These new incentives in the United States really, really turbocharge the project economics right here at home, which is great for us too, because of our double whammy — we manufacture here.

So we have less shipping. We have the extra 10% incentive because we manufacture in the United States, and we have now these other incentives on top of that. So it really, really does make the United States a leader. And I feel that other countries are looking to the United States now saying, “Hey, we don’t want all the innovation to happen there.” We believe over time, other countries are going to try and match this incredible bill that was passed here to make the world more level. But for right now, this is an incredible incentive for us right here at home.

Operator: Thank you. We’ve come to the end of the Q&A session. This concludes today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.

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