Portsmouth, N.H.,US: Environmental Power Corporation (AMEX:EPG) yesterday held a "ground-breaking" ceremony for its biogas plant at the JBS Swift beef processing facility in Grand Island, Nebraska. The plant will generate biogas by anaerobic digestion of animal waste and by-products, to offset a portion of the Swift facility's natural gas consumption.
Microgy, Inc., a subsidiary of Environmental Power', will construct, own and operate the anaerobic digestion facility and sell its gas to JBS Swift under a 15-year purchase agreement. The facility will produce a methane-rich fuel to be used in the plant's existing boilers.
At capacity, the facility is expected to generate 235,000 MMBtu per year - the energy equivalent of 1.7 million gallons of oil - and will offset approximately 25% of JBS Swift's annual purchase of natural gas as well as using a renewable form of energy, according to Environmental Power. An additional advantage will be the ability of the company to reduce the land application of organic waste materials from its operations.
JBS Swift says that Swift & Company is the world’s second-largest processor of fresh beef and pork products, and the leading beef processor in Australia. Relatively recently celebrating 150 years since it was founded in 1855, Swift has more than $10 billion in annual sales and more than 20,000 employees worldwide, according to the company.
The Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska, Rick Sheehy, and the Mayor of Grand Island, Margaret Hornady joined representatives of Environmental Power and JBS Swift for the ground breaking event. Other representatives of federal, state and local authorities also attended the event with members of the Grand Island business community.
"The meat processing industry represents an important market for our co- digestion systems to produce renewable biogas," said Rich Kessel, President and Chief Executive Officer of Environmental Power. "The facility at Grand Island is our first inside-the-fence industrial project and demonstrates JBS Swift's willingness to embrace emerging renewable energy technologies. We look forward to continuing our partnership with JBS Swift, including exploring the company's network of processing plants to identify and develop additional facilities."
The JBS beef processing plant in Grand Island currently processes approximately 6,000 beef cattle per day and employs 2700 people. The plant is one of three similar facilities owned by JBS Swift in North America. The new biogas system will employ 3 skilled operators along with a facility manager, according to Environmental Power.
The new gas production facility will have two 1.2 million-gallon digesters, as well as a gas cleaning system prior to burning for energy production. The Benham Companies, LLC of St. Louis, Missouri will provide design and construction services for the project.
"With the commencement of construction on this exciting new project, the Grand Island plant is demonstrating its commitment to exploring ways to benefit both the communities we work in and our bottom line," said Dennis Sydow, Vice President and General Manager of the JBS Swift Grand Island Facility. "Our plant will benefit from a new cost-effective source of fuel derived from waste materials generated by our activities, allowing us to improve the environmental sustainability of our operations. "
The biogas plant is expected to be operational in the 4th quarter of 2008.
Further information
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 and other organic waste for its use to generate energy, according to the company. For more information visit the Company's web site at http://www.environmentalpower.com/.
For more information on JBS Swift, visit the company’s web site at
http://www.jbsswift.com/index.php .
[This article is adapted from a news release by PRNewswire-FirstCall with an original source of Environmental Power Corporation.]
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT – by the Environmental Power Corporation from the original press release.
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; 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.