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www.CTGreenGuide.com SPRING 2016 • CONNECTICUT GREEN GUIDE 9 FuelCell's configurations allow customers to capture the heat for use in their facilities, and a recently intro- duced modification of its technology aimed at manufac- turers offers a source of nitrogen. As long as the company can satisfy its investment partners with returns, and its customers with im- proved power reliability, lower operating costs and a greener emissions footprint, projects will get done, Bottone said. A customer might think fuel cells are innovative, but that's secondary in the purchasing decision, he said. There are also benefits for municipalities and the state, including taxes and more robust gas infrastruc- ture — a key benefit in a region that faces natural-gas bottlenecks, he said. Slumping stock FuelCell's recent momentum and shrinking losses haven't been enough to solve its stock woes. FCEL shares lost more than half their value last year. Its share price traded below $1 from late June to early December, prompting the company to enact a one-for-12 reverse split of its shares to keep its listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market. As of press time Feb. 22, shares were priced at $5.05. Osborne, the analyst, said the company hopes the reverse split will attract more institutional investors. For more than a year, FuelCell and other energy stocks have suffered from low oil prices, he said. And investors have also been cautious because slower-than- hoped adoption of fuel cells. But Osborne's latest assessment of FuelCell's stock in January, prior to Q1 earnings, was a "buy." "There's certainly improvement," he said. "You can see profitability and you can smell it, but you're not quite there yet." Evolving product mix While FuelCell's market is baseload power for compa- nies and utilities, it's pursuing other areas too. Coal plant carbon capture is one R&D effort that could open up new markets in coal-heavy states. Under the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan, coal plants would face increasing pressure to reduce emissions in the years ahead. FuelCell plans to install a 2.3-megawatt carbon-cap- ture system on a U.S. coal plant — the first such dem- onstration of its size. "We see that as a launching point for this to be de- ployed commercially," said Anthony "Tony" Leo, Fuel- Cell's vice president of application engineering and new technology development, who is a 38-year veteran of the company. It's also hoping to integrate itself into California's hy- drogen vehicle market. "From a customer perspective in the next three to five years, the mix could be much more diverse than it is today," he said. "Maybe even two to three years." -$100,000 -$50,000 $0 $50,000 $100,000 $150,000 $200,000 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Revenue Profits Fuelcell energy earnings (in 000s) SOURCE: SEC FILINGS