TORONTO, April 20, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alkaline Fuel Cell Power Corp. (NEO: PWWR) (OTCQB:ALKFF) (Frankfurt: 77R, WKN: A3CTYF) (“PWWR” or the “Company”), a diversified investment platform developing affordable, renewable, and reliable energy assets and cleantech, is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a non-binding letter of intent (the “LOI”) with Festival Hydro Inc. (“Festival Hydro”). The LOI summarizes the intentions of the Company and Festival Hydro to enter into a Joint Venture (“JV”) to demonstrate PWWR’s Jupiter 1.0 fuel cell prototype and supporting ammonia cracking and AI (artificial intelligence) electrical panel cleantech (the “Pilot”).

“PWWR is thrilled to announce this agreement with Festival Hydro to pilot our Jupiter 1.0 fuel cell prototype,” stated Frank Carnevale, Chief Executive Officer of PWWR. “Over the past few months, PWWR has signed agreements with cleantech partners that may enhance the success of bringing our fuel cells to market quicker than anticipated, and locating these technologies with a forward-looking utility is a great opportunity to demonstrate and build the business case of utilizing hydrogen fuel cells within electric grids to support the decarbonization of the grid. PWWR sees the downstream deployment of small hydrogen fuel cells as critical to meeting utility needs and delivering affordability, renewable and reliable power to end-customers.”

"We are excited to partner with PWWR to pilot the Jupiter 1.0 fuel cell prototype in the Festival Hydro distribution system, in Stratford, Ontario," said Jeff Graham, President and CEO of Festival Hydro. "This partnership represents a significant step forward in our efforts to promote clean energy and sustainable development, while providing our customers with reliable and affordable electricity. This innovative technology aims to provide clean and reliable power alternatives, supporting distributed energy resources for grid innovation while promoting the 'Power of Local Hydro'. With this collaboration, Festival Hydro is taking a proactive approach to exploring new technologies and sustainable solutions. This initiative aligns with Festival Hydro's commitment to providing safe, reliable, and affordable electricity to its customers while supporting the transition to a cleaner energy future.”

Joint Venture Details

PWWR is seeking to pilot its Jupiter 1.0 or 4 kW fuel cell generator in a Festival Hydro site to develop the business case on the use of an alkaline fuel cell to provide either or both back-up and peaking power capacity downstream in the Festival Hydro network. PWWR and Festival Hydro have identified a site owned by Festival Hydro.

Festival Hydro is interested in building and assessing a business case in the use of fuel cell technology and ammonia or hydrogen storage as a potential cost-effective non-wires alternative to delivering additional electrical capacity downstream of a sub-station to customer-meter.

Both parties will work to identify and secure smart grid funding opportunities to support the JV and Pilot.

Both parties will negotiate the terms of the JV, Pilot including sourcing capital for the budget over the next 120 days.

Decarbonizing the Electric Grid

Decarbonizing the electricity grid locally, in Canada and globally using hydrogen fuel cells presents significant value in terms of economic, environmental, and social benefits. This technology can play a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions, improving energy efficiency, and supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy. Reducing carbon emissions created by the electricity grid using with this innovative technology presents a significant opportunity to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Using renewable sources to produce hydrogen for use in fuel cells for local generation of electricity can promote job growth, reduce the need for long transmission corridors and their energy losses to service remote areas, improve the quality of life for communities, and support sustainable development.

Cleantech

On November 22, 2022, PWWR announced an LOI with AmmPower to utilize their ammonia cracking technology in a pilot site.

Figure 1- PWWR and AmmPower

On March 15, 2023, PWWR announced an LOI with Koben to integrate their AI electric breaker panel with the Jupiter 1.0, and assess additional opportunities for collaboration.

Figure 2- PWWR and Koben Genius Electric Breaker Panel

PWWR intends to utilize both ammonia, ammonia cracking and AI electric breaker panel cleantech within this JV and Pilot with Festival Hydro, pending negotiations.

2023 Priorities

As per the March 6, 2023 announcement of list of 2023 priorities, PWWR is intending to use this Pilot towards demonstrating the enhanced value to customers and potential partners and distributors, thus aimed to deliver nearer term sales quicker than previously anticipated.

PWWR has access to approximately $5 million in debt financing (the “Financing”), and intends to support costs in strategic fuel cell pilots.

Additional pilots are being discussed with other parties.

As announced on April 4, 2023, PWWR is currently working towards securing its Fuel Cell assets (the “Fuel Cell Assets”) held by Fuel Cell Power NV (“FCP NV”) and utilize such assets in connection with various pilot projects in 2023 and 2024 (the “Pilot Projects”).

About Festival Hydro Inc.

Festival Hydro Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the City of Stratford, Canada. The principal activity of Festival Hydro is to distribute electricity to the residents and businesses in the City of Stratford and the towns of Brussels, Dashwood, Hensall, Seaforth, St. Marys, and Zurich, under a license issued by the Ontario Energy Board (“OEB”). Festival Hydro is regulated by the Ontario Energy Board.

A culture of innovation has been the driver for strategic business and community growth by offering better ways to manage power, enhance effective use of infrastructure and capital assets, and create increased process efficiencies through automation. We strive to consistently prove that local utilities can play a key role in facilitating impactful initiatives while ensuring business fiduciary expectations, customer satisfaction, and managing downside risk while providing upside potential. Festival Hydro has played a key role in investment attraction and has been sought out as a thought leader willing to participate in projects leading the future of energy management. We believe in incorporating the use of technology and leveraging strategic partnerships as enablers to reach our goals and promote continuous business improvement.

ABOUT ALKALINE FUEL CELL POWER CORP. (NEO: PWWR)

PWWR is a diversified investment platform developing affordable, renewable, and reliable energy assets and cleantech. We bring ‘Power to the People’ today, combining a stable revenue stream with a future- forward vision to commercialize our advanced hydrogen fuel cell technology to meet the massive global market need, and ultimately generate compelling returns for investors.

PWWR is well positioned to deliver ‘Power to the People’ in the global energy transition while offering a diversified cleantech growth platform for investors.

Further information is available on the Company website at https://www.fuelcellpower.com/, and the Company encourages investors and other interested stakeholders to follow it on:
LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Common shares are listed for trading on the NEO under the symbol “PWWR”, the OTC Venture Exchange “OTCQB” under the symbol “ALKFF” and on the Frankfurt Exchange under symbol “77R” and “WKN A3CTYF”.

For further information, please contact:

Frank Carnevale
Chief Executive Officer
+1 (647) 531-8264
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements or information. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “plans”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates”, “believes” or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might”, “occur” or “achieve”. Forward-looking statements in this news release may include, but are not limited to, the JV and the terms associated therewith, the expected benefits arising from the JV and the Pilot for both PWWR and Festival Hydro, statements with respect to the Company’s technology, the Financing and intended use of proceeds from the Financing, the expected use of the Fuel Cell Assets in the Pilots, expectations relating to the Fuel Cell Assets and ability for the Company to secure the Fuel Cell Assets in a timely manner, if at all, intellectual property, business plan, objectives and strategy.

Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about the current expectations and plans of management of the Company relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such statements and information may not be appropriate for other purposes, such as making investment decisions. Since forward-looking statements and information address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. The forward- looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and no undertaking is given to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

NEITHER THE NEO EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE NEO EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.