Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Description of business and basis of presentation

v3.23.1
Description of business and basis of presentation
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2023
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Description of business and basis of presentation Description of Business and Basis of Presentation
Description of Business
Tecogen Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, “we,” “our,” or “us,” or “Tecogen”) designs, manufactures, markets, and maintains high efficiency, ultra-clean cogeneration products. These include natural gas engine driven combined heat and power (CHP) systems, chillers and heat pumps for multi-family residential, commercial, recreational and industrial use. We are known for products that provide customers with substantial energy savings, resiliency from utility power outages and for significantly reducing a customer’s carbon footprint. Our products are sold with our patented Ultera® emissions technology which nearly eliminates all criteria pollutants such as nitrogen oxide ("NOx") and carbon monoxide ("CO"). We developed Ultera® for other applications including stationary engines and forklifts. We were incorporated in the State of Delaware on September 15, 2000.
We have wholly-owned subsidiaries American DG Energy, Inc. ("ADGE") and Tecogen CHP Solutions, Inc., and we own a 51% interest in American DG New York, LLC ("ADGNY"), a joint venture. ADGE and ADGNY distribute, own, and operate clean, on-site energy systems that produce electricity, hot water, heat and cooling. ADGE owns the equipment that it installs at a customer’s facility and sells the energy produced by its systems to the customer on a long-term contractual basis.
Our operations are comprised of three business segments:
our Products segment, which designs, manufactures and sells industrial and commercial cogeneration systems;
our Services segment, which provides operations and maintenance ("O&M") services and turn-key installation for our products under long term service contracts, and
our Energy Production segment, which sells energy in the form of electricity, heat, hot water and cooling to our customers under long-term energy sales agreements.
The majority of our customers are located in regions with the highest utility rates, typically California, the Midwest and the Northeast.
On July 20, 2022, we announced our intention to increase focus on opportunities relating to Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA). Tecogen believes that CEA offers an exciting opportunity to apply the company’s expertise in clean cooling, power generation, and greenhouse gas reduction to address critical issues affecting food and energy security.
Our common stock is quoted on OTC Markets Group, Inc.'s OTCQX Best Market tier and trades under the symbol "TGEN."
On May 18, 2017, the Company acquired 100% of the outstanding common stock of American DG Energy Inc., formerly a related entity, in a stock-for-stock merger.
Basis of Presentation
    The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 8 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all the information and footnotes required by generally accepted accounting principles for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. Operating results for the three months ended March 31, 2023 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2023.
    The condensed consolidated balance sheet at December 31, 2022 has been derived from the audited consolidated financial statements at that date but does not include all of the information and footnotes required by generally accepted accounting principles for complete financial statements.
    For further information, refer to the consolidated financial statements and footnotes thereto included in Tecogen's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.
    The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include our accounts and the accounts of entities in which we have a controlling financial interest. Those entities include our wholly-owned subsidiaries American DG Energy Inc., Tecogen CHP Solutions, Inc., and a joint venture, American DG New York, LLC, in which American DG Energy Inc. holds a 51% interest. Investments in partnerships and companies in which we do not have a controlling financial interest but where we have significant influence are accounted for under the equity method. Any intercompany transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.
    Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and
liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.
Income Taxes
    The provisions for income taxes in the accompanying unaudited consolidated statements of operations differ from that which would be expected by applying the federal statutory tax rate primarily due to losses for which no benefit is recognized.
Employee Retention Credit
On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) was signed into law providing numerous tax provisions and other stimulus measures, including an employee retention credit (“ERC”), which is a refundable tax credit against certain employment taxes. The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 extended and expanded the availability of the ERC.
As a result of our election to use an alternative quarter, we qualified for the ERC in the first, second and third quarters of 2021 because our gross receipts decreased by more than 20% from the first, second and third quarters of 2019. As a result of averaging 100 or fewer full-time employees in 2019, all wages paid to employees in the first, second and third quarters of 2021, excluding the wages applied to the Paycheck Protection Program Second Draw Loan, were eligible for the ERC.
During the three months ended June 30, 2021, we recorded an ERC benefit for the first and second quarters of 2021 of $713,269 and, in the three months ended September 30, 2021 we recorded an ERC benefit for the third quarter of 2021 of $562,752, respectively, in other income (expense), net in the our condensed consolidated statements of operations. On April 14, 2022, we received $564,027 from the Internal Revenue Service representing the ERC claim for the third quarter of 2021 and $1,275 of accrued interest. We received $667,121 from the Internal Revenue Service on January 12, 2023 in payment of the ERC claimed from the first and second quarters of 2021 and $15,775 of accrued interest, which is reported in other income (expense) in our condensed consolidated statements of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2023. A current receivable in the amount of $46,148 is included in our condensed consolidated balance sheet as of March 31, 2023. We expect to receive the remaining balance in 2023.