Emerald Horizon | Extreme drought is tipping Europe’s power supply

EQS-Media / 04.08.2026 / 15:23 CET/CEST

Date: 04th August 2026 Embargo: For immediate release / 04082026

 

Extreme drought is tipping Europe’s power supply.

A summer of heat exposes a structural weakness in our energy system – an Austrian company has the
solution.
 

Graz (AT), August 4, 2026 –When Romania’s government shuts down car plants to save its own power
grid, energy security finally becomes a matter of business location – and Romania is not alone: in
Hungary, the Paks nuclear power plant had to go completely offline for the first time in its
history due to historically low Danube water levels; in Romania itself, a reactor unit at
Cernavodă was shut down; in Switzerland, Beznau went offline; and in France, operators at several
sites had to throttle output because the returned cooling water would have placed additional
strain on rivers that were already overheated.

The reason is the same in every case: conventional nuclear power plants require large volumes of
cooling water drawn from rivers. When the water’s temperature rises or its level falls, output has
to be reduced. Until now, such outages were mainly a question of grid stability. As of this week,
they are also, to a significant degree, a question of economic value creation – as the example of
Romania shows.

There, the government has now halted car production. As Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan announced in
Bucharest on August 3, Renault subsidiary Dacia and the US group Ford have completely shut down
their Romanian plants until August 19. The companies were responding to a government call to
voluntarily cut energy consumption. When two well-known automotive plants stand idle for two weeks
so that a power grid doesn’t collapse, security of supply has definitively become a major factor
in where companies choose to operate.

Emerald Horizon CEO Florian Wagner on the matter: „What we’re experiencing this summer is a
fundamental design flaw of the old energy policy and its technology. During a drought, it’s not
one pillar of the grid that fails, but two at once: hydropower and nuclear power. Both depend on
the same resource. It’s precisely this double risk that our technology rules out from the outset.“

The SMRX system developed by Emerald Horizon, consisting of ADES (Accelerator Driven Energy
Source) and DUALstorePLUS (Emerald Horizon’s proprietary energy storage system, which can store
both electricity and heat), differs fundamentally in this respect not only from conventional
nuclear power plants but also from most other small modular reactor concepts.

ADES is a thorium-based, accelerator-driven, permanently subcritical energy system with 25
megawatts of thermal output. Heat is carried in a closed molten-salt circuit. No water is used for
cooling anywhere in the system. Heat, drought, and low water levels therefore have no adverse
effect on it.

Added to this are the properties of the subcritical principle: the chain reaction is not
self-sustaining but depends on an externally operated particle accelerator. If the accelerator is
switched off, the process stops. A meltdown is physically impossible. The fuel is thorium; the
concept requires no uranium or plutonium and is designed to avoid transuranic waste.

Shares of Emerald Horizon AG (ticker: SMRX, ISIN: AT0000A3UZE1) have been listed on the Vienna
Stock Exchange since June 26, 2026. Subscriptions were already carried out in July 2025 as part of
a capital increase at a price of €760 per share. Emerald Horizon therefore began trading on an
already-established valuation base.

With the start of trading, the shares became freely tradable for the first time. The associated
liquidity premium led to an adjustment toward the €1,000 mark. The price then held around that
level for roughly a month with notable trading volume. In connection with the recent news flow,
the share reached a level of around €1,150.

Florian Wagner points out that the development since the initial listing comprises two effects
that should be considered separately: on one hand, the one-time liquidity premium associated with
any listing; on the other, the subsequent share price development driven by news flow. Measured
against the consolidation level of around €1,000, the latter amounts to roughly 15 percent. All
underlying data is publicly available – in the securities prospectus, in the Vienna Stock
Exchange’s price data, and in the financial analysis referenced below.

On July 8, 2026, the Hamburg-based research house NuWays AG initiated coverage of the company. The
analyst rates the stock „Buy“ with a price target of €1,300. This rating and price target reflect
solely the analyst’s own assessment. They do not constitute a statement by Emerald Horizon AG
regarding future share price performance.

Florian Wagner: „I already regarded Emerald Horizon as a valuable company before the IPO – one
that will solve the problems of energy supply. What has changed since the listing is not the
value, but its visibility. The value of this company arose, and continues to arise, from our
outstanding employees, and it is created in the lab, in development, and in manufacturing. Every
technical milestone on the path to the prototype ultimately turns an expectation into a fact. That
is the work of the coming years, and I look at it with great confidence.“

Note:

„The information contained in this release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation
of an offer to buy or subscribe for securities, nor is it a recommendation to buy or sell
securities of the company. Under no circumstances is this release, or the information it contains,
intended for publication, distribution, or dissemination, directly or indirectly, in whole or in
part, in or into the United States of America (USA), Australia, Canada, Japan, or South Africa, or
any other jurisdiction in which such publication or distribution would be unlawful. Accordingly,
this information is not directed, in particular, at „U.S. Persons“ (as defined in Regulation S of
the U.S. Securities Act of 1933) or at persons resident or located in the aforementioned
jurisdictions.“

 

ABOUT EMERALD HORIZON

Emerald Horizon AG, headquartered in Graz, Austria, develops and markets advanced energy storage
and nuclear technologies for a decarbonized world. The company pursues a vision of safe, scalable
energy infrastructure deployable worldwide, guided by UN Sustainable Development Goal #7
(Affordable and Clean Energy). Its core products include the hybrid energy storage system
DUALstorePLUS and the thorium-based subcritical micro-reactor ADES.
For more information: [1] www.emerald-horizon.com

 

PRESS IMAGE

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Image: Emerald Horizon CEO Florian Wagner © Fuchs
Free of charge for editorial use

 

PRESS CONTACT

Media Contact Company Contact
Emerald Horizon AG Emerald Horizon AG
Ing. Norbert Hofer, MBA Karl-Huber-Gasse 15, 8041 Graz
Vice President Strategic Communication [2]media@emerald-horizon.com
  www.emerald-horizon.com
Phone: +43 664 5455 324
media@emerald-horizon.com
www.emerald-horizon.com

 

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End of Media Release

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Issuer: Emerald Horizon AG
Key word(s): Energy

04.08.2026 CET/CEST This Press Release was distributed by [3]EQS Group

View original content: [4]EQS News

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Language: English
Company: Emerald Horizon AG
Karl-Huber-Gasse 15
8041 Graz
Austria
E-mail: office@emerald-horizon.com
ISIN: AT0000A3UZE1
WKN: A42CXA
Listed: Vienna Stock Exchange (Official Market)
LEI Code: 8945008L6AXTVW4PDF22
EQS News ID: 2377128

 
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References

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2. media@emerald-horizon.com
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