Environmental Power Corporation Provides Business Update
15 November 2006 - 11:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
PORTSMOUTH, N.H., Nov. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Environmental
Power is releasing the following information and comments of its
President and Chief Executive Officer, Richard Kessel, regarding
the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Microgy, Inc.
("Microgy"), to help investors understand the impact of several
recently announced developments and the status of various projects
and initiatives. Rich Kessel stated: "As we have made significant
progress on many initiatives that I described in my last business
update, I firmly believe that we now have passed the point of
inflection on our growth curve. Over the past several years we have
invested heavily to refine our technology, develop our
infrastructure, gain acceptance by the farming community, form
strategic alliances and position ourselves as the recognized leader
in large-scale biogas and RNG(TM) facilities and as a potentially
significant participant in the emerging market for carbon offset
credits. RNG is our trademarked brand of pipeline-quality renewable
natural gas. "We have accomplished the following: * Strong
Financial Platform. We have secured a firm financial footing
through the recently announced closing of the $60 million tax
exempt bond offering in Texas, coupled with the closing of the
strategic investment of $15 million of convertible preferred shares
and warrants. This attractive financing structure is a template to
be used in other locations across the country; for instance, we are
actively pursuing its use in California. Successful development of
our current facility pipeline in accordance with our project
assumptions will result in a positive cash flow for the company. *
Accelerated Business Development. We have joined forces with
Cargill to develop facilities across North America utilizing
Cargill's extensive customer network. We believe that Cargill's
strong reputation and market presence will be invaluable in
accelerating our development efforts, as well as affording us
assistance in legislative affairs, procurement of equipment, and
also providing gas, electric and carbon offset credit market
intelligence through its extensive commodity trading operations. In
addition, a fund managed by one of Cargill's wholly owned
subsidiaries is a major participant in the $15 million convertible
preferred offering mentioned above. * Strong Market Appetite for
Our Product. As a result of market acceptance of our business
proposition, we have taken decisive steps to expand our facility
backlog. In addition to the four Texas RNG facilities already in
development with a projected gas production of 2.6 billion cubic
feet (bcf) per year, we have also signed agreements for the
development of several RNG facilities in California with an
additional projected 2.6 bcf per year. We continue to pursue
additional projects in California, as well as projects in other
states that have high concentrations of manure and substrate. *
Unlocking Premium Value for RNG. We seek long-term purchase
agreements that capture the premium value of our RNG. For example,
we have signed agreements with PG&E which provide us not only
with access to its extensive natural gas pipeline, but also a
commitment to purchase, on a long term basis, up to nearly 3 bcf
per year of gas from our planned California facilities. In
addition, another utility has documented its interest in the
premium value of RNG, and we have had discussions with other
utilities which have expressed the same interest in the green
aspects of our gas. * Emerging Carbon Market. We are positioning
ourselves to become a significant participant in the emerging
carbon offset market. We have executed transactions for the sale of
credits from our Wisconsin facilities, and are in discussions with
various market participants regarding the sale of credits from our
facilities under development. At full operation each of our
standard eight tank digester facilities can capture approximately
200,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year. As the
greenhouse gas market matures, we project these environmental
attributes will provide significant value. "As a result of these
successes we have developed a robust platform which is extremely
well-positioned to capitalize on the enormous and largely untapped
potential for large scale biogas production in the dairy, beef and
hog markets. Were these markets fully developed, we believe such
facilities could generate annual gas sales on the order of $3
billion (based on gas price of $7 per MMBtu) and annually capture
carbon credits worth approximately $450 million (based on current
Chicago Climate Exchange protocols and trading prices). "Microgy is
the recognized leader in its field, and we are now entering the
steep portion of the company's growth curve. Our focus now shifts
to execution: making our many project opportunities and commitments
a reality capable of sustainable results. I am proud to be a member
of the Environmental Power team at this exciting time in the
company's history." Brief updates regarding facilities and
development pipeline follow: Facility Updates Texas RNG Facilities.
We are currently developing four large-scale RNG facilities located
in Texas, with a combined projected annual RNG production capacity
of approximately 2.6 bcf. Each of these facilities will utilize our
standardized, large-scale, eight-digester modular design, and, at
full operation, each facility will process the manure from
approximately 10,000 cows. The net proceeds from the recently
completed bond and equity offerings will be used to fund
construction of these facilities. These four facilities are: *
Huckabay Ridge. We have begun commissioning the first grouping of
digesters, have begun producing small quantities of gas, and
continue to expect production of commercial quantities of biogas to
occur in Q4 2006. We continue to expect that the facility will be
fully operational by the end of Q1 2007. * Mission Dairy. We have
commenced engineering work, and continue to expect the Mission
facility to commence gas sales near the end of 2007. * Cnossen. We
have advanced Cnossen in our build-out schedule, and expect the
facility to commence gas sales at the end of 2007. * Rio Leche.
This project is in the early stages of development, and we expect
the facility to commence gas sales in early 2008. California RNG
Facilities. We believe California represents an enormous market
opportunity for our systems: it is the largest dairy state and the
largest energy-consuming state. We have signed agreements with
PG&E which provide Microgy with access to PG&E's pipelines
and commit PG&E to purchase nearly 3 bcf per year (the
equivalent of approximately four Huckabay-sized facilities) of RNG
from facilities to be developed. The following RNG facilities are
in development in California: * Gallo-RNG. A proposed
eight-digester RNG facility for pipeline interconnection to be
located at Gallo's dairies in Atwater, California. * Bar 20
Partners. A proposed eight-digester RNG facility for pipeline
interconnection to be located at the Bar 20 Partners dairy in
Kerman, California. * Maddox Dairy. A proposed four to eight
digester RNG facility for pipeline interconnection to be located at
the Maddox dairy in Riverdale, California. * Hollandia Farms;
Lancing; and Cloverdale Dairy. A proposed twelve- digester RNG
facility for pipeline interconnection to be located at a cluster of
dairies in Hanford, California. "Inside-the-Fence" Facilities.
Inside-the-fence facilities in development include: *
Gallo-Columbard. The Gallo-Columbard facility is a proposed two-
digester biogas production facility designed for on-site use of the
biogas as a replacement for propane in Gallo's cheese manufacturing
operations. We have completed, and have submitted to the regulatory
authorities, all applications for the required permits. We believe
that permits will be granted later this year or early in the first
quarter of 2007, allowing us to begin construction in the first
quarter of 2007. * Swift. We have signed definitive documentation
relating to a facility to be located at Swift's Grand Island,
Nebraska meat processing plant. This facility is expected to
generate approximately 250,000 MMBtu per year of biogas, which will
be purchased by Swift for use in its operations. In addition, if
this first project is successfully launched, we believe there to be
the potential to develop additional projects across Swift's
processing plant network. Facility Pipeline & Metrics With
current development projects and the continued expansion of our
project pipeline, we believe we are on course with our internal
growth plan. Our ongoing development efforts confirm our belief in
the substantial size and appetite of the market for our renewable
energy solutions. The table below lists the projects for which we
have signed definitive documentation: Facility Location Type Gas
Production (a) RNG Huckabay Ridge TX RNG 650,000 Mission TX RNG
650,000 Rio Leche TX RNG 650,000 Cnossen TX RNG 650,000 Maddox CA
RNG 325,000 Bar 20 CA RNG 650,000 Gallo-RNG CA RNG 650,000
Hollandia/Lancing/Cloverdale CA RNG 975,000 Inside the Fence
Gallo-Columbard CA Inside-the-Fence 125,000 Swift-Grand Island NE
Inside-the-Fence 250,000 Total 5,575,000 (a) Expected gas
production in MMBtu / year at full operation. ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL
POWER CORPORATION Environmental Power Corporation is a developer,
owner and operator of renewable energy production facilities. Its
principal operating subsidiary, Microgy, Inc., holds an exclusive
license in North America for the development and deployment of a
proprietary anaerobic digestion technology for the extraction of
methane gas from animal wastes for its use to generate energy. For
more information visit the Company's web site at
http://www.environmentalpower.com/. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT The
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, referred to as
the PSLRA, provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements.
Certain statements contained in this press release, such as
statements concerning planned manure-to-energy systems, our sales
pipeline, our backlog, our projected sales and financial
performance, statements containing the words "may," "assumes,"
"forecasts," "positions," "predicts," "strategy," "will,"
"expects," "estimates," "anticipates," "believes," "projects,"
"intends," "plans," "budgets," "potential," "continue," "targets"
"proposed," and variations thereof, and other statements contained
in this press release regarding matters that are not historical
facts are forward-looking statements as such term is defined in the
PSLRA. Because such statements involve risks and uncertainties,
actual results may differ materially from those expressed or
implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not
limited to: uncertainties involving development-stage companies;
uncertainties regarding project financing, the lack of binding
commitments and/or the need to negotiate and execute definitive
agreements for the construction and financing of projects, the sale
of project output, the supply of substrate and other requirements
and for other matters; financing and cash flow requirements and
uncertainties; inexperience with the development of multi-digester
projects; risks relating to fluctuations in the price of commodity
fuels like natural gas, and our inexperience with managing such
risks; uncertainties regarding the development of the market for
carbon credits and other environmental attributes; difficulties
involved in developing and executing a business plan; difficulties
and uncertainties regarding acquisitions; technological
uncertainties; including those relating to competing products and
technologies; risks relating to managing and integrating acquired
businesses; unpredictable developments; including plant outages and
repair requirements; the difficulty of estimating construction,
development, repair and maintenance costs and timeframes; the
uncertainties involved in estimating insurance and implied warranty
recoveries, if any; the inability to predict the course or outcome
of any negotiations with parties involved with our projects;
uncertainties relating to general economic and industry conditions,
and the amount and rate of growth in expenses; uncertainties
relating to government and regulatory policies and the legal
environment; uncertainties relating to the availability of tax
credits, deductions, rebates and similar incentives; intellectual
property issues; the competitive environment in which Environmental
Power Corporation and its subsidiaries operate and other factors,
including those described in our most recent Annual Report on Form
10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, well as in other filings we
make with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are
cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of the date that they are made. We
undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise. CONTACT Rich Kessel, President and CEO
of Environmental Power Corporation (603) 431-1780 Public Relations
Contact: John Abrashkin, Ricochet Public Relations (212) 679-3300
x121 Investor Relations Contact: John Baldissera, BPC Financial
Marketing 1-800-368-1217 DATASOURCE: Environmental Power
Corporation CONTACT: Rich Kessel, President and CEO of
Environmental Power Corporation, +1-603-431-1780, ; or Public
Relations Contact, John Abrashkin, Ricochet Public Relations,
+1-212-679-3300 x121, , or Investor Relations Contact, John
Baldissera, BPC Financial Marketing, 1-800-368-1217 Web site:
http://www.environmentalpower.com/
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