Zopa Co-Founders Speak Out Against Fintech’s Peer-To-Peer Exit
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Financial News.
Read it, as it a cautionary tale about what happens to disruptive innovation.
Eventually, the big bad boys make sure you don’t disrupt their easy life.
Zopa has been part of my life for fourteen years and it did me well. Especially in the bad times and when I had a personal crisis.
I wrote Stability in Financial Systems in 2012, where I said this.
I have a strong feeling that Zopa, the peer-to-peer lender, is also a stable system. Other companies of the same type may well be too! but I am not as familiar with them as I am with Zopa.
Unfortunately, the decision makers in Zopa decided to become a bank, broke the stability and crashed the company.
Son of Zopa will arise!
When Will Energy Storage Funds Take The Leap To New Technology?
This article on the Motley Fool is entitled 3 UK Dividend Shares To Buy Yielding 6%.
This is a paragraph from the article.
The first company on my list is the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (LSE: GSF). With a dividend yield of just over 6%, at the time of writing, I think this company looks incredibly attractive as an income investment. It is also an excellent way for me to build exposure to the green energy industry.
Just as everybody has a fridge in their house to stop food being wasted, electricity networks with a lot of intermittent resources like wind and solar, needs a device to store electricity, so that it isn’t wasted.
Gore Street Energy Storage Fund is being very safe and conservative at the current time, often using batteries from one of Elon Musk’s companies.
You can’t fault that, but they are only barely making a dent in the amount of batteries that will be needed.
If we are generating tens of GW of wind energy, then we need batteries at the GWh level, whereas at the moment a typical battery in Gore Street’s portfolio has only an output of a few megawatts. They don’t state the capacity in MWh.
There is this statement on their web site, about the technology they use.
Although the projects comprising the Seed Portfolio utilise lithium-ion batteries and much of the pipeline of investments identified by the Company are also expected to utilise lithium-ion batteries, the Company is generally agnostic about which technology it utilises in its energy storage projects. The Company does not presently see any energy storage technology which is a viable alternative to lithium-ion batteries. However, there are a number of technologies which are being researched which if successfully commercialised, could prove over time more favourable and the Company will closely monitor such developing technologies.
They say they are agnostic about technology and are looking around, but they are sticking with lithium-ion technology.
That technology works, is safe and gives a good return.
But they are at least thinking about moving to new technology.
In the rail industry, it is common for rail leasing companies to get together with train manufacturers or remanufacturers to develop new trains.
As an example, Eversholt Rail and Alstom formed a partnership to develop a hydrogen-powered train for the UK, which I wrote about in Alstom And Eversholt Rail Sign An Agreement For The UK’s First Ever Brand-New Hydrogen Train Fleet.
Worldwide, there are probably upwards of a dozen very promising energy storage technologies, so I am very surprised that energy storage funds, like Gore Street and Gresham House have not announced any development deals.
Conclusion
Energy storage funds could benefit from using some of the financing methods used by rolling stock leasing companies.
Solidity Or Speculation, It’s Your Choice
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Investors Chronicle.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Solid-state batteries are made using a technology that promises massive improvements in lithium-ion battery efficiency and capacity, so a breakthrough could see ranges in electric vehicles (EVs) extended well beyond the few hundred miles that the most advanced models can currently achieve.
It then lists four companies, that are possible investments; Gelion Technologies, Ilika, Superdielectrics and Solid State.
I am sure the technology will break through, but finding the winner will be difficult.
Zopa Pulls Out Of P2P Consumer Lending As It Blames Cowboy Firms For ‘Damaging Customer Trust’
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on City AM.
This is the first three paragraphs.
Peer-to-peer giant Zopa has started to inform customers it is closing down its P2P consumer investment division, transferring its loan portfolio to its relatively new bank unit.
In an email to customers, Natasha Wear, peer-to-peer CEO at Zopa, wrote that “after 16 years of peer-to-peer consumer investments at Zopa, we’ve taken the difficult decision to close this part of our business..
“To support this, Zopa Bank will be buying your entire loan portfolio at current face value without any of the fees you’d normally pay for a loan sale,” the email reads.
This is a very sad day.
I have been an investor in Zopa for fourteen years and it has done me well, returning four to five per cent before tax in that period. My first investment was the money, I received from the sale of C’s Porsche.
I also feel that since Giles Andrews ceased to be at the head of the company, Zopa rather lost its way.
Perhaps, their mathematical modelling wasn’t up to scratch.
But at least, I haven’t lost any money on my investment.
BP Plans To Turn Teesside Into First Green Hydrogen Hub
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is the first paragraph.
BP plans to build Britain’s biggest “green hydrogen” facility on Teesside to produce the clean fuel for use in new hydrogen-powered lorries and other transport.
Note.
The plans appear to be ambitious starting with a £100 million investment to build a 60 MW electrolyser by 2025, which would rise to as much as 500 MW by 2030.
The electrolyser will be paired with an upwards of a billion pound one gigawatt facility called H2Teesside, that will produce blue hydrogen.
I think there could be more to this than meets the eye.
Using The Carbon Dioxide Rather than Storing It!
I followed the carbon dioxide pipe from the CF fertiliser plant on Teesside using Google maps after seeing a film about it on the BBC. It goes to the Quorn factory and a massive greenhouse. I do wonder, if BP is talking to other companies, who also have a need for large quantities of good quality carbon dioxide.
One could be an Australian company, called Mineral Carbonation International, who have developed a process to convert carbon dioxide into building products like blocks and plasterboard. MCI won a prize at COP26, so could BP be looking at integrating one of these plants into their complex on Teesside?
The Electrolysers
Will BP be purchasing their electrolysers for green hydrogen from ITM Power in Sheffield?
This press release from ITM Power is entitled 12MW Electrolyser Sale.
The customer is not named, but could this be a starter kit for BP?
Alstom’s Hydrogen Aventras
In Alstom And Eversholt Rail Sign An Agreement For The UK’s First Ever Brand-New Hydrogen Train Fleet, I came to this conclusion.
This modern hydrogen train from Alstom is what is needed.
I also felt there could be three similar trains; electric, battery-electric and hydrogen, which would help operators hedge their bets on what type of traction to use.
Teesside must be one of the more likelier places where the Hydrogen Aventras will be carrying passengers.
I wrote about this possibility in Alstom Hydrogen Aventras And Teesside.
A deal between BP and Alstom would surely be in the interest of both companies.
- Alstom would get a local hydrogen supply.
- BP would get a first sale.
- BP would get excellent publicity and a local demonstration of the possibilities of hydrogen.
It might even be possible to supply the hydrogen by pipeline.
Charco Neurotech: $10m Boost For Firm Helping People With Parkinson’s
The title of this post, is the same as that as this article on The Times.
Parkinson’s is an awful disease and my scientific nose says that the company named in the article; Charco Neurotech may be on to something.
The important markers are all there and if I’d spotted it earlier, I would have put a few pounds into the company.
Who’d have thought that wearing a vibrator on your chest would have a positive effect against a terrible disease.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find the device has uses with other diseases and conditions.
Ballard Buys UK Fuel Cell Specialist Arcola
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Electrive.
This is the first paragraph.
The Canadian fuel cell manufacturer Ballard Power Systems acquires Arcola Energy, a British specialist for the integration of fuel cell systems in heavy commercial vehicles such as buses, trucks and trains. Both sides had previously worked together for years.
The price is stated as around forty million dollars in cash and shares.
As Arcola started just round the corner from where I live in Dalston, I wish them well!
Velocys Announces Long-Term Clean Avgas Deals With Airline Behemoths
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Energyst.
This is the first paragraph.
Fuel-from-waste pioneer Velocys has made the world’s biggest sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant more investible, as it detailed massive likely long-term supply deals to two big airline groups.
The share price seemed to benefit from the announcement.
I’m not bothered, as I have a small investment.
Fortescue Unveils Green Investment Framework
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Mining Weekly.
This is the first paragraph.
Iron-ore major Fortescue Metals this week launched its Sustainability Financing Framework, enabling the future issuance of green and social debt instruments that will support investments in eligible green and social projects.
I have to admit, that I thought something like this might happen, after seeing all the Fortescue Future Industries publicity on a bus, which I wrote about in Green Hydrogen Can Save Us. But Waiting For It Won’t.
I did say this in that post.
Andrew Forrest is intending to get his message across to the City.
But I didn’t take any action.
I can see other companies and investment trusts following Andrew Forrest’s lead.
Harmony Energy Income Trust Eyes IPO To Develop 213.5MW Of Tesla Battery Storage
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Solar Power Portal.
The article is a very detailed look at Harmony and their development of energy storage, using Tesla hardware and software.
It also has things to say about the energy storage market in general.
This is a paragraph.
Paul Mason, managing director of the Investment Adviser, said battery energy storage offers exciting growth potential, with an expected requirement of up to 43GW by 2050 from just 1.2GW now.
It is certainly looking that companies like Harmony Energy Income Trust will be important in funding this extreme growth of energy storage.
The Anonymous Widower 