First published in the Quoted Cleantech newsletter, January 2011. Copyright Cleantech Investor 2011

AIM-quoted catalysts developer Acta says it is on course to achieve profit expectations for 2010 thanks to the sale of rights it owns to solar projects.  This is in spite of the fact that there have been delays in the delivery of some solar installation services to SPF Energy in Italy – a key partner of the company.

Acta managed to sell the consents prior to the end of the year, which pushes up its gross margin. This means that overall revenues will be lower than expected even though the profit will be on target. Equity Development forecasts a profit of €9.4 million for 2010.

Acta has gained conditional project consent for four applications totalling 3.9MW for its photovoltaic pipeline, taking the number of consents to 13: they have a total value of €3.6 million. There are a further 29.6MW of identified projects on top of the 12MW that have project consents.

Acta estimates that the combined value of the pipeline, assuming all the projects had consents, is up to €12.5 million. The company sold €3.35 million of consents before the end of 2010.