Clear Blue Technologies International Inc. (0YA0.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Okay. Hi, everyone. This is Natalie here. Hopefully, we won't have that interruption again. They're doing some testing right now. So the joys of working from home. So thank you very much for joining us today. We're going to get things started now. So today, we're going to be presenting on the new solutions for Illumient and provide some insight on what's coming down the pipeline. So I'd like to introduce Marlee who's going to walk us through the different solutions and give a little bit of background on Clear Blue and Illumient as well. So Marlee, thank you very much. So I'll kick it over to you.

Thank you. Thanks, Natalie. Hopefully, you'll be on mute in case that comes up again throughout the presentation. Thanks, everybody, for joining us today. My name is Marlee Cittadino. I am -- I handle Illumient across North America. And this is our first webinar for 2022. So thanks for joining us. Today, we are going to be launching our new product line. So we're really excited about that. And before we jump in, I do, just for everybody on the call, we've got a lot of people from a lot of different areas. So I just wanted to give a little bit of background, a quick overview of Clear Blue Technologies and the Illumient smart off-grid solution. Not too long, I think our total webinar is going to be about 30 minutes today. So as a company, Clear Blue utilizes renewable energy resources to deliver power across the globe. So this looks very different for anybody who goes to the Clear Blue website. You'll see a lot of installations of big telecom towers on mountain tops in Africa. And this is what we're doing. We're essentially utilizing renewable resources to deliver power. The key for us to this unparalleled solution is our smart off-grid service. Clear Blue Technology's smart off-grid solution allows cost-efficient power that can be installed anywhere, expertly monitored and managed remotely, delivering unmatched reliability and performance. In North America, this allows us to provide smart off-grid power for streetlight, security systems and Internet of Things devices. We know the key now and certainly into the future are our smart capabilities. This technology and service is included in all Illumient solutions, which allows us to provide the brightest light, the highest reliability, low maintenance costs and total peace of mind. So to give you a quick agenda of what we're going to be going through today, we're going to talk about our current Illumient solution, discuss what's working and what else is needed. So we're going to get into the market needs, talk a little bit about batteries, our R&D department. And then we're going to get into the new product line, the applications for this, locations where it can be used, look specific energy analysis for these. We're also going to talk about what else we have coming this year and then finally wrap up with some resources for you. This webinar will be recorded, just as a note, and we'll be sharing that with our partners later. So this is our main solution. For anybody who is familiar with Illumient that should look very familiar to you. This works great anywhere, especially in cold weather. So let's get into some of the specifics of it because we're going to be comparing it against what we've got coming here. So with these solutions, we are utilizing lead acid batteries. These are a very durable battery technology and the type of batteries that we use, but they are extremely heavy. So you see those boxes at the bottom, those are the base battery cabinets. Those are where the batteries need to be installed because of the weight of them. So that cabinet adds between 2.5 and 4 feet of height to the entire system. So our poll height is between 20.5 and 32 feet. So throughout this presentation, I'm going to make statements that this -- almost as if this is our limitations, there's exceptions to every rule. So what I'll tell you is that's our standard offering. Certainly, we can work with something outside those. But just keeping in mind for our complete solution, that's what we're looking at from a standard option is between 20.5 and 32 feet. The illumination that we're looking at in these lights is around 5,000 lumens. Now for anybody who's got a background in light engineering, is a lighting engineer, please excuse me, I am fully aware and gotten my lessons that, that is not a great way to measure illumination. We really want to be looking at foot candles. But when we talk about general systems and giving an output, I think lumens is a pretty good halfway point between watts, which is what we used to measure with HID lights and is no longer necessarily applicable. It does talk about the amount of power that the lights are drawing, but that no longer equates to the illumination. With LED lights, they continue to get more efficient. We're putting out more lumens per watt. So comparing a 40-watt light -- HID light to a 40-watt LED light is completely different. So we'll talk, for the sake of argument today, we're going to measure everything in lumens. So we're looking for these systems that we're putting out at least 5,000 lumens. So the applications on these systems, we've certainly used them in other areas, but in general, streets, roadways, mission-critical lighting. Where we've got -- and what I mean by mission critical is that there is some sort of measurement on the amount of illumination that needs to be put out, whether it came down from a Department of Transportation saying this is the amount of foot candle that we need to see at this location all of the time, meaning no dimming is available. This is an intersection. This is a rural area. Whatever the case may be, this is a major roadway. We need to put out a particular level of light with us. So what's working with this solution? Well, first and foremost, as we take great pride, it is all based on renewable energy source. So whether we're talking about solar or wind. It is off-grid power. There is -- we do have the ability to connect to the grid. However, 95%, maybe 99% of our installations are completely off-grid, which allows installations in areas where the grid is not available, it's aging and maybe not 100% safe or it's just something where it allows us to put these installations anywhere. There is expert engineering that goes into this. And I really do want to stop and take a moment. We've got a fantastic team and not just the ability to generate the solar energy and that type of engineering, but also the electrical and mechanical engineering that goes into every one of these installations. They're also customized for each application. So for anybody who has worked on a project with us, you know that we will generate an energy analysis for every project to figure out exactly how much energy we can generate at that specific location based on the combination of solar panels, wind turbines and batteries that we're going to be utilizing and then also looking at the light requirements to make sure that we are meeting the needs of the project. As I mentioned, with the batteries, with these light acid batteries, they are great for cold climates, up to minus 40, and that's both Fahrenheit and Celsius. So we can really put these into a lot of different situations. With all of our systems, we have the smart controls. And what that brings us, of course, is our engineers doing 24/7 monitoring. For those of you who not aware, we do have an office in Nairobi, Kenya. So we do follow the sun, and we've got engineers monitoring systems literally 24/7. We also, with those smart controls, are able to see a 70% reduction in maintenance costs. Just as a note, I throw this statistic out there, and I don't know that I've spent a lot of time explaining where this came from. This was actually Facebook doing a study when they decided to partner with us on a program that they are working on in bringing Internet to Africa that they found by using our smart system, they would be able to reduce their maintenance costs by 70%. So that's not just an arbitrary number that we throw out there. With the smart controls, we are also able to extend battery life. We do a lot of management in the way that the batteries are charged and discharged, and we are able to keep those systems working even longer. Also with our smart controls becomes a customer interface, so those end users who want to be very active in monitoring their systems. They certainly have the ability to do that. They can even make, if they'd like, some adjustments in their lighting and run any reporting. So we do send out a monthly report for all of our end users, just giving them some overall statistics on their systems if for some reason, they needed to run daily, weekly, monthly annual reports, that's all available to them. We also have customers that say, you guys take care of it, no worries for us, and that's absolutely fine. These systems do show a lower total cost of ownership versus a grid-based system, we can see an ROI certainly in 5 and definitely in 10 years. So we're seeing a definite cost benefit to these systems as well. So what else would we need with these? Well, we're hearing some feedback, and we do absolutely listen to the feedback that we get that there is a need for a lower cost option that sometimes that light level is overkill, and there are installations where people are looking for a smaller footprint. So we outline these needs from the market needs and say, okay, so we need a lower cost, reliable, smart off-grid solar lighting solution with less light output and a smaller footprint to blend into the environment. So this may be a physical or an ecological footprint. So in taking a look at this, the first thing that we thought is there's got to be something that we can do with the batteries that, that might be the easiest way to achieve this. About a year ago, last March, we did the start of our webinar series for any of you that were able to join us. And in that March webinar, what we took a look at was solar lighting from a very basic level and all of the different components to it. If you remember that grade, if you weren't able to join us, I'm going to give you a quick refresher on the battery piece of it. And we're going to take a look at the different battery technologies just so you've got a little bit of background and idea of where we're coming from on this. So these lead acid batteries that we're currently using, as I mentioned, are really good durable batteries. So the pros to this is they're a mature technology. It's essentially the same battery technologies in your vehicles if you don't have an electric vehicle. So this has been around for a while because of that. It is pretty affordable. There's a wide range of sizes. And as I've mentioned, it's great in cold climates. The cons to this type of battery technology is there are penalties with the depth of discharge. So really, what that means is that as we look at this box from a visual level, we are needing to maintain about 40% of the storage capacity just to keep the battery running. So with the lead acid battery for storage and then for powering something, we're able to take advantage of about 60% of the battery capacity. That's just inherent in lead acid batteries. They're also toxic and corrosive and this is going to be horrible to say, I'm going to kind of skip that for right now because all batteries really are at this point. And then the other kind with lead acid battery is there is something that's called sold patient that can when the batteries operate in a partial state of charge, so you don't keep bringing them up to full charge. So currently, our smart technologies kind of negate those cons. We make sure that there's no restrictions on the battery life by dipping too far into the battery reserves, and we make sure that sulfation is not occurring. So then comparing that to a lithium battery. So the pros with lithium battery is we are able to go 90% depth of discharge. So again, thinking about the visual on the battery, we're able to use 90% of the battery capacity for storage and then for powering something. It is smaller. These are not necessarily to scale pictures, but it does give you a good idea. They're definitely smaller and lighter weight than a lead acid battery. They have a longer life with these as well. 2x to 3x as long as the lead acid battery and the lithium work well in warm climates. One thing that I really emphasized when I did the webinar last year is this, that these should not be charged below freezing. So what that means is that if you've got an area, say, Florida where my in-laws are nicely wintering right now, they do occasionally have a night or 2 where it may dip below freezing. But overall, it doesn't remain at that level. So lithium is fine for that area of the country or of the continent, I should say. But what we're talking about is when it is consistently below freezing. For most of the folks who are joining us here today, you're very familiar with this. And then if you've got overnight temperatures, daytime temperatures that currently consistently remain below freezing, lithium is not a good option. Not only can we not charge the batteries, that it does immense damage to the batteries, but we also cannot discharge, meaning we can't pull the power if it gets to minus 10 Celsius. So say around 12 degrees Fahrenheit. Then even if there's a charge on the battery, we can't pull it to charge the -- or to power the light because, again, we're doing damage to the life of the battery. The last thing on here again, I'm skipping the toxic and corrosive, is that they are less affordable. Now I should mention with our systems that we -- based on the battery capacity, we're generally using 2 lead acid batteries to one lithium battery if we're comparing apples-to-apples. So the less affordable piece kind of gets thrown out the window with that. If we're comparing one battery to one battery, they are more expensive. But for our case, we tend to use 2 lead acid batteries. So that gives you a very quick overview, rudimentary education on batteries, but I did need to get into this before we get into the next step. And that is what we did. So we said going back to our idea that the way that we achieve all of the things that the marketing is looking -- or the market is looking for is to go after batteries. So we went to our R&D department, and we said find a way to use lithium batteries in cold climates. If we can do that, then we've really got something here. So we've got an excellent research and development team that was very excited to share pictures as over months and months of testing. So insulating, finding ways to heat putting these batteries emptying the kitchen bridge and freezers out, buying new freezers to do all of this testing and then they sent me these graphs, which, of course, meant nothing to me. So we had to go through an interpret and understand what they were doing. But effectively, at the end of this time period, again, this has been over a vast majority of last year, they did come up with a solution, and they found a way to insulate and heat a battery cabinet to keep those lithium batteries above freezing. So we're going to talk about -- a little bit about exactly where that can be used in a couple of minutes, but that is the core to our new product line. So with that, I just want to kind of start with the ground level. Rather than saying our old Illumient or the original Illumient. We're going to call what we have currently Illumient STRADA. So STRADA is an Italian variation on the word for street. So we thought that was really applicable to say this is our street lighting solution. So this is STRADA. And today, we are announcing the Illumient CAMMI solution. So CAMMI, again, an Italian variation on sidewalk or walkways. So that's what we're thinking as far as the application with these. So this is Illumient CAMMI that we are rolling out today. With this, there are a few characteristics I want to point out. So first and foremost, we are utilizing lithium batteries in those battery cabinets. Now these are top mounted, and I just want to take a moment to talk about why this is an advantage. First and foremost, if you're looking to put these lights in an area that is prone to flooding or along any water fronts, this is an ideal solution because we're getting the batteries up and out of the water. So that's first and foremost. Second, because the cabinets, the solar panels and the lights are physically so close together, we're able to eliminate a lot of the cabling costs. So we don't have cables running down the entire shaft to the pole. So that helps us achieve our goal of trying to get the cost lower on these systems. As well, there are some concerns in some areas that have been brought to us about vandalism. So by putting the battery cabinet up at the top of the pole, that eliminates that. This system is designed to really be no maintenance. So it shouldn't be any issue by putting those up at the top of the pole. We get those installed, everything runs efficiently. When we're looking at pole height, our standard options are going to be between 18 to 28 feet. So we're just taking into consideration that whole shaft there. And by not having the big base battery cabinet, we're able to utilize that. When we look at the illumination that's put out with these, in general, and of course, it's going to depend on location as you go further south, we're certainly going to be able to improve upon this. But we're looking at lights that are going to be around 4,000 lumens. Before I get into application, I do just want to show you a size comparison. So I did put that next to the dual solar option with CAMMI. But as you can see over single solar STRADA and single solar CAMMI, certainly a little bit of a size difference there. And then the applications that we're looking for with CAMMI are probably sidewalks and walkways. And again, dependent upon the amount of illumination, that's not to say that's the only place we can install these. So we're looking at something where we're trying to provide a good, safe and secure environment for pedestrians. When we look at the characteristics or the features of canny, we've got all the same things that we have with the STRADA, the original Illumient series. So it's a renewable energy source with off-grid power. All of the expert engineering even more so went into CAMMI. It's customized for each application. With that insulation and heating, this is going to work really well in cold climate. And again, I'm going to the next slide, I'm going to talk specifically about that. We've got the smart controls, with the 24/7 monitoring, the reduction in maintenance costs, extended battery life, of course, the ability for customers to log in and take a look at their systems and do any on-demand reporting. And of course, now with a lower cost, we're looking at even a lower total cost of ownership. In addition with CAMMI, we are able to lower the cost. We are providing lower light levels, and there is a smaller footprint with these. So let's talk about the location. I'm going to start with the bottom. So down in that yellow area, we've had a lithium solution for a while. But as you can see, it was pretty limited on the areas where we could install this, and we've done even more data research on this and found that, that was really the area where we could use a lithium battery as it stood, just put it in a cabinet, no worries about that. This big green area in the middle of the continent, this is where we can now bring up and extend the reach of CAMMI with the insulation and heating. So you can see the entire United States can now utilize this. And some areas, specifically, of course, us being based in Toronto. We're very happy to report that this can be used in the GTA and Southern portions of Quebec, at the Atlantic Seaport as well. And then over on the West Coast, certainly up a good portion of BC. The blue areas I should call out are just too cold at this point. We've done some testing and we were not able to keep those batteries above freezing with a normal amount. We could keep drawing the power to heat the batteries and then we got to a point where we said, well, that's great. But now we're running out of power to turn on the light. So at this point in those blue areas for our friends in Alberta, unfortunately, we're not going to be able to use CAMMI in those locations at this point. Stay tuned. Who knows what's coming on with technology? But we're really excited to be able to bring up this lithium solution so far north. I did want to show you an energy analysis. So for anybody who's looked at our solution before that we put together some proposal giving you some examples, this should look relatively familiar to you. What I did was I pulled the energy analysis for Toronto. So in Toronto, scenario A, is what we've got standard right now, which is our STRADA solution. So a single solar and 2 140 lead acid batteries. In the winter in Toronto, we're doing 280-watt hours in the winter and 715 in the summer. So what that would mean is in the winter, we could keep a 20-watt light illuminated at 100% intensity throughout the night. I should just call out that when we talk about winter, we take the absolute worst time of year for all of these. So -- and that differs. It's not always December 21. So just as a reference point, when we show you the NRG analysis, this is worst case. So that 20 watts. And then you could see in the summer, it's going to be 55 watts. So winter doesn't apply to all 5 or 7 months of winter, how long it's feeling to you currently, that's just at the worst time of the year. Scenario B then is going to take a look at on solar panel and then one 105 amp hour lithium battery. So this battery is actually going to give us better power for Toronto in the winter. So we're up to 375 watt hours. So in 715, same in the summer. So now we could support a 25-watt light at 100% intensity throughout the worst time of the winter. In scenario C, what we're looking at then is putting in an even smaller lithium battery. So this is just another option. We can also put 2 of these 24 amp hour batteries in here. But I just wanted to pull this just to give you some additional data. So with one solar panel and one 24 amp hour lithium battery. In the winter, we could do 150-watt hours and 325 in the summer. So this is definitely a smaller application we're supporting, in this case, a 10-watt light. Just as a note, there's that asterisk there. This is, as I keep mentioning, 100% intensity throughout the winter. If you were going to do some dimming, then we could support a brighter light. So in this case, we could support, say, in scenario A, maybe up to a 25 or 30-watt light and do some dimming. So I'm just giving you some generalities, but just wanted to compare the different battery technologies here. Okay. So then the next thing I wanted to talk about is we're not done. We've got even more coming this year. So we started with the Illumient STRADA. We're rolling out Illumient CAMMI. Next quarter, we will be introducing Illumient PARCO. So this is coming in Q2. Certainly, we'll have some presser on this and some announcements. But let me talk a little bit about the characteristics of PARCO. So First and foremost, we are using lithium batteries with that cabinet, but this is on a shorter pull with a smaller solar panel. So just so you know on the inspiration, our President and CEO went to a dog park and saw something similar to this and said we've got to be able to do something even smaller than the CAMMI solution. So that's what this is designed for, it's certainly a lower light level with those smaller solar panels. So we're looking at targeting around 3,000 lumens and the application for this parks and pathways. So that's what we're imagining here. Just to give you a comparison as well for the size comparison against STRADA, well, now you can see we are significantly smaller as far as a footprint. And I'd like to apologize if you can hear the background noise apparently they decided to start trimming trees right in front of me here today. So Natalie's got a fire alarm I've got trees being cut down. All right. So we've got PARCO coming in Q2. In Q4, we have Illumient SENTI. And unfortunately, we're pretty far out on the development of this is in a lot of concepts, but nothing hard drawing that I could share with you. So just let me tell you a little bit about it. The ideal with SENTI is that this is going to be an all-in-one picture. So what we mean by this is the light, the solar panel, the battery and the controller are all going to be in one. So we're looking to make everything a lot smaller. This is going to be utilizing lithium batteries, the illumination output that we're looking at -- for this one, probably under 3,000 lumens and the application is definitely going to be something a lot lighter when we're talking about ambient lighting. So with all of the things that we've announced today, where are some resources where you can get some more information? Well, in addition to our Illumient brochures, we now have developed these brochures specifically on STRADA and CAMMI. For our partners that are on the call today, not only will we have these brochures up in the partner portal shortly, certainly by the beginning of next week, but also data sheets, which are going to give some specific technical information will be available as well. In the partner portal for anybody else that doesn't have access, you can request those -- that information from us as well. If you'd like to figure out where you can go, very exciting, and this is going to be something that we're going to develop as the year goes on, and that is our Illumient website. So we're kind of doing this in stages. But if you go to the Illumient website today, and you click on products with the drop-down menu, you can see all of the options that we have here. And then if you click on the individual on that one or the individual pages, you're going to get a breakdown on both STRADA and CAMMI with PARCO and SENTI. This is going to be a coming soon thing, but you can get all of the brochures from our websites as well. So with that, as I mentioned, we do have the recording. It will be going up in the partner portal for all of our partners for anyone else who's looking for a recording of this. My contact information is there on the screen as well as Natalie's. You can always get in contact us -- with us, just by sending an e-mails to [email protected]. We have partners that -- we are growing with our partner community. We're delighted to be able to share that. If you are looking for something specifically, we do have partners in your local area. So please contact us. We'll get you in touch with the right people. follow us on social media, a lot of the information that we're sharing here today and new announcements will be shared in social media and also for anyone interested, please sign up for our monthly newsletters. So with that, Natalie, I will turn it over to you for any questions that came in.

Okay. Great. Thank you, Marlee. We do have a question here in the chat that's asking about the cost difference between A and B.

Yes. And I am working on getting all of that in there. One of the other things I'll be sharing in the partner portal for all the partners, and I'm going to probably send an e-mail blast just to let everybody know when all of these are up there is that we'll be sharing all of the pricing for these as well. It is customized. So it's not easy to just say, here's how much it is, and we're working on putting all of that together. I was hoping to at least have a percentage for you. I just didn't get a chance to put that together. So it is significantly less, but I don't have hard numbers, but we'll have those to share with you shortly.

Okay. Great. Thank you. And then just another question here about wind turbine options for CAMMI.

At this point, we do not have wind turbine options for CAMMI. We explored that a little bit, but we're thinking with the smaller footprint and the technology that's available at this time, no. So for anybody who's looking for a wind turbine, it still would be on that STRADA series.

Okay. Thank you. So I think that's it for now. If anybody has any additional questions, they can definitely get in contact with us, Marlee or myself, and we can get those answered for you. And then we'll just do one more here, and then we'll close it up. So just a question about the cabinets and whether or not those are theft proof.

Yes. It's actually -- I think the term in the industry is tamper proof, and there is the ability certainly to use a lot of different technology to make sure that nobody can get access to those, from using tamper-proof screws to putting locks on the cabinet. So all of that -- yes, they're designed for people not to go and mess with them. It's not like there's a little latch on the side of those. But if there's an area where we need to take some additional measures, we can do that as well.

Okay. Great. All right. Well, thank you, everyone. We really appreciate your time today joining us for this. And again, if you have any questions, follow-ups from this, please get in contact with Marlee or myself, and we'd be happy to point you towards the right information. And stay tuned, stay connected with us because we'll have more information on the third solution, PARCO, coming out and then when we -- we would let you know when the final solution, SENTI, is coming out. So lots of exciting step happening here, and we are thrilled to have you guys all on the journey with us. So thank you very much. Marlee, did you want to say anything else?

No. Thanks, everybody, for joining.

Okay. Thanks. Bye-bye.