Note 17 - Business Segment Information

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

Segment Reporting Disclosure [Text Block]

17.   BUSINESS SEGMENT INFORMATION

Management views the Company as operating in two major business segments: Power and Energy Group, and All Other operations.

The Power and Energy Group develops, produces, and sells battery systems.  The All Others group consists of the remaining portions of the previous Life Sciences and Performance Materials groups.  Management completed a thorough review of operations and strategies and determined that it was in the best interests of the shareholders of the Company to focus primarily on the Power and Energy Group.  As a result of this assessment resources devoted to the Performance Materials Group and Life Sciences Group were considerably reduced and no new development is being pursued in those areas by the Company.  For both years presented, the activity relating to the Performance Materials and Life Sciences divisions have been reclassified into All Other operations.

During the twelve months ended December 31, 2012, the Company and its affiliates received a total of $5,900,000 in payments for its various Power and Energy Group projects. The bulk of these cash payments were associated with contractual milestone payments for our larger utility-scale energy storage system projects. However, the total amount of these cash payments has not been recognized in our reportable segment data for the year, as the related contracts are recognized under the completed contract method.

Reportable segment data reconciled to the consolidated financial statements as of the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2011 is as follows:

In thousands of dollars:

Year Ended	Net Sales		Loss (Income) From Operations			Depreciation and Amortization		Assets
December 31, 2012
Power & Energy Group	$	1,302	$	18,756		$	995	$	66,055
All Other		245		(165	)		76		334
Consolidated Total	$	1,547	$	18,591		$	1,071	$	66,389
December 31, 2011
Power & Energy Group	$	4,503	$	21,122		$	1,248	$	63,068
All Other		723		(71	)		76		464
Consolidated Total	$	5,226	$	21,051		$	1,324	$	63,532

In the table above, the Loss from Operations column includes such expenses as business consulting, general legal expense, accounting and audit, general insurance expense, stock-based compensation expense, shareholder information expense, investor relations, and general office expense. As noted in the prior section, $5,900,000 in contractual milestone and other payments associated with our utility-scale energy storage system projects were not deemed as recognizable revenue for the quarter, and thus were not included in the table.

For the year ended December 31, 2012, long-lived assets increased by $6.9 million for the Power and Energy Group. For the year ended December 31, 2011, long-lived asset decreased by $180,401.

For the year ended December 31, 2012, we had sales to three major customers, each of which accounted for 10% or more of recognizable revenues. The company did not have any sales to related parties during the year ended December 31, 2012. Total sales to these customers for the year ended December 31, 2012 and the balance of their accounts receivable at December 31, 2012 were as follows:

In thousands of dollars:

Customer	Sales Year Ended December 31, 2012		Accounts Receivable Balance at December 31, 2012
Power and Energy Group:
Alsher Titania LLC	$	240	$	60
Gen-X		217
Emrol		200
TSK Solar			$	686
HNEI			$	352

For the year ended December 31, 2011, we had sales to two major customers, each of which accounted for 10% or more of revenues. Total sales to these customers for the year ended December 31, 2011 and the balance of their accounts receivable at December 31, 2011 were as follows:

In thousands of dollars:

Customer	Sales Year Ended December 31, 2011		Accounts Receivable Balance at December 31, 2011
Power and Energy Group:
Proterra, LLC	$	2,109		-
Yintong Energy (YTE)*		1,794		-

*YTE (an affiliate of Canon) became a related party, as of July 21, 2011.

Revenues for the years ended December 31, 2012, and 2011 by geographic area were as follows:

In thousands of dollars

Geographic information	Sales Year Ended 2012		Sales Year Ended 2011
United States	$	841	$	3,111
Belgium		200
Germany		141
Sweden		124
Switzerland		111
Other foreign countries		130		321
China				1,794
Total	$	1,547	$	5,226

(a) Revenues are attributed to countries based on location of customer.

Geographic information for long-lived assets was as follows (based on physical location of the assets):

In thousands of dollars:

Long-lived assets:	2012		2011
United States	$	6,207	$	7,220
China		13,625
Total	$	19,832	$	7,220