Lion Energy has an array of technologies which it intends to commercialise as pilot plants. These include a solar electricity generating system using low-cost polymer collectors and an electrolyte-based heat to electricity generation system, a catalyst to facilitate hydrogen production from water, a solar thermal desalination technology and the manufacture of a low-cost construction material from waste plastic.

Kostas Liapis, President and Managing Director of Lion Energy, said “I intend to take the company public on the NASDAQ and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It’s a good time – Greece brought in a new feed-in tariff of EUR 0.46 per kwh (USD 0.59) on 6 June 2006, for all renewables, and 45% Grand from EU”.

Proceeds from the placement will go towards an intense 6-year development programme, which is expected to cost EUR 30.0m (USD 38.4m). Of this, EUR 12.0m (USD 15.4m) will go to set up a component assembly factory in Northern Greece, and EUR 18.0m (USD 23.0m) will be used to develop pilot projects, beginning with a 10.0MW solar thermal plant which will sell electricity to the grid, using hydrogen as a storage mechanism to deal with intermittency. This will operate in two phases, initially a 2.0MW plant as a demonstration, and then an 8.0MW expansion.