WBAug21pgs_cs.qxp_Wood Bioenergy Magazine 7/15/21 11:35 AM Page 8
■ in the news ReGenerate Purchases Albany Green Energy ReGenerate Energy Holdings, LLC , the recently formed joint venture between Ember Infrastructure and ReEnergy Biomass Operations LLC, has completed the acquisition of Albany Green Energy, a biomass heat-and-power facility located in Albany, Ga. from a subsidiary of Exelon Generation Co. LLC. The Albany Green Energy facility, also known as “AGE,” uses woody biomass from mill residue, forestry waste, recycling and agricultural waste sourced within a 75mile radius of the facility to provide 50 MW of electricity to Georgia
ReEnergy facility at Fort Drum
Power, process steam to the nearby Procter & Gamble paper products facility, and process steam that is used to generate electricity for the nearby U.S. Marine Corps Logistics Base. The facility’s 25 employees will join the ReEnergy team. “We are very pleased to bring Albany Green Energy onto the ReGenerate platform as we continue to build a best-in-class bioenergy business,” comments Elena Savostianova, Managing Partner of Ember. “ReGenerate will leverage the deep expertise and experience of the ReEnergy and Ember teams to manage and optimize this important facility.” With the acquisition, ReGenerate owns 137 MW of operating biomass power generation across three facilities, including ReEnergy Stratton and ReEnergy Livermore Falls, both located in Maine. ReGenerate
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plans to continue the expansion of its platform across North America to deliver sustainable bioenergy products to utilities, corporations and other partners. “We particularly look forward to joining the robust bioeconomy in the state of Georgia, where biomass energy is embraced as a key component of the state’s renewable energy portfolio and represents half of its total renewable electricity generation,” says Larry Richardson, CEO of ReEnergy Holdings LLC. “In acquiring Albany Green Energy, we are focused on achieving the high level of safety, environmental, and operating performance that we are proud to have achieved at the other facilities in the ReGenerate and ReEnergy portfolios.” Ember and ReEnergy formed ReGenerate in April 2021. ReEnergy, founded in 2008, is a wholly owned subsidiary of ReEnergy Holdings LLC, which, in addition to the Maine facilities, owns ReEnergy Black River, a 60 MW biomass power facility located on the U.S. Army’s Fort Drum installation near Watertown, NY, and ReSource Waste Services LLC, which operates five facilities in New England that recycle construction and demolition waste materials. Ember, founded in 2018, is a New York-based private equity firm delivering capital solutions to businesses and assets seeking to reduce carbon intensity and enhance resource efficiency. The Albany operation started up in 2017.
Bagasse-Based Pellet Facility Is Possible Delta Biofuel CEO Philip Keating is evaluating Iberia Parish, Louisiana for a $70 million residual sugarcane fiber-based pellet plant. It would create 126 direct jobs in the Acadiana region. Keating says Delta has secured long-term supplies of feedstock bagasse, which can be processed into pellets and used alongside, or in lieu of, industrial wood pellets in
power generation. Bagasse fuel pellets are lower cost alternatives to typical wood pellets, Keating says, and also result in greater reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, or GHGs. The Jeanerette facility would produce up to 300,000 metric tons of bagasse fuel pellets annually. The company would source all excess bagasse from four nearby sugar mills in Iberia, St. Mary and St. Martin parishes. Additionally, Delta has engaged European and Asian energy production facilities for multi-year commitments to purchase the fuel pellets. “Our bagasse pellet manufacturing plant will provide a sustainable, long-term solution for the sugar mills by utilizing all excess bagasse produced each harvest. This will not only reduce cost and liability for the mills, but will eliminate methane emissions from the discarded bagasse that you can see in huge piles around the state,” Keating says. “We see Louisiana and its sugar industry as a terrific and reliable source of biomass for alternative fuel production.” The company plans to locate the greenfield facility on 16 acres near U.S. Highway 90 in Jeanerette, near one of its bagasse suppliers, Enterprise Sugar Mill. Groundwork for the facility would begin this September with completion expected in September 2022. Founded in 2019, Delta Biofuel is a whollyowned startup within Tasso Renewable Energy. Louisiana Economic Development first began working with the company in December 2020. To secure the pellet plant in Jeanerette, the state offered Delta a competitive incentive package that includes the services of LED FastStart —a workforce development program. The package also includes a performance-based grant of $1 million as a reimbursement for infrastructure improvement expenditures, subject to the company reaching specified investment and payroll benchmarks. “This announcement is an exciting one for the Acadiana region,” says One Acadiana President &
Wood Bioenergy / August 2021
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