Note 6 - Property, Plant and Equipment

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2013

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant and Equipment Disclosure [Text Block]

Note 6.   Property, Plant and Equipment

In thousands of dollars
	September 30, 2013			December 31, 2012
Machinery and equipment, held and used	$	11,241		$	6,643
Building and improvements		4,324			4,324
Furniture, office equipment & other		1,669			1,930
Leased assets		1,593
Construction in progress		4,345
		23,172			12,897
Less accumulated depreciation		(11,470	)		(8,821	)
Total property, plant and equipment held & used	$	11,702		$	4,076

Property, plant and equipment held and not used in operations consists of the following:

In thousands of dollars
	September 30, 2013		December 31, 2012
Machinery and equipment, held and not used	$	-	$	4,249
Less accumulated depreciation				(2,392	)
Total property, plant and equipment held and not used	$	-	$	1,857

The construction in progress relates to our new facilities under construction in Wu’an, China. Three new facilities are expected to be operational and fully accepted during the fourth quarter of 2013. Property, plant and equipment held and not used relates to machinery and equipment that was decommissioned at our Reno, Nevada facility and shipped to our China subsidiary. This machinery and equipment was received and installed during the third quarter by our China subsidiary for use in operations.

       The lease asset includes a 1.8 megawatt system for Energy Storage Holdings, LLC. (ESH), which is providing commercial frequency regulation services in the PJM market on the East Coast. This system went into operation in January 2013. We are leasing the ALTI-ESS Advantage™ system to ESH and receive lease payments of approximately $20,000 per month and a share of the revenue generated by the system under the agreed upon terms. The lease term ends February 2016, and ESH has an option to purchase the system during the lease term.

Depreciation expense, for the nine months ended September 30, 2013 and 2012, totaled $721,000 and $714,000, respectively.