New Zealand’s tilting windmills business says a steep fall into loss is because the wind didn’t blow.

Tilt Renewables (ASX:TLT) was spun out of Kiwi energy company Trust Power last year to commercialise tech that tilts solar panels and windmills in the direction of the sun or wind.

It reported a $2.8 million loss, versus a $16.4 million profit last year.

“The reduction [was] driven by the production impacts and higher depreciation, following an upwards asset revaluation at 31 March 2017,” it said.

“Production impacts” means there was a shortage of wind, mostly in the June quarter last year.

The company’s windmills produced 1796 GWh in the year to March 31, which was 12 per cent lower than the year before and 155 GWh below long-term expectations.

It was all thanks to New Zealand’s below average wind conditions and in Australia by a combination of below average wind conditions and constraints by the market operator AEMO.

That meant that sales revenue and earnings from large-scale generation certificates were down 9 per cent at $158 million.

The company is carrying over half a billion dollars of debt, which it used to find the 54 MW Salt Creek Wind Farm. It says that should start earning in July, thanks to a 12.5 year offtake agreement with Meridian Energy Australia.

Tilt has a development pipeline in Australia of almost 3000 MW of wind, solar, and storage projects and 530 MW of wind projects in New Zealand.

Earnings for their 2019 financial year (which ends in March 2019) are expected to be in the range of $120 to $127 million.

Tilt shares were flat at $1.69 on the ASX and down 2 per cent to $1.90 on the New Zealand bourse.

Featured Companies

You might be interested in