Laidlaw Energy Group, Inc.(fka LLEG)

[gemmerling]

Laidlaw purchases former Fraser boiler, land

BERLIN — Laidlaw Energy has purchased the former Fraser boiler and 60 acres of land from North American Dismantling. The New York-based company plans to convert the boiler into a 66-megawatt
biomass plant. Laidlaw President Michael Bartoszek said all the
financing and papers for the project were signed on Dec. 23.
“The deal is closed,” he said. “We signed all the papers on the twenty-third.” Bartoszek said he expects to file the deed with the Coos County Register of Deeds office Monday. He declined to reveal the purchase price of the boiler and land. Laidlaw announced in May that it has signed an agreement to purchase the boiler and land from NAD. At that time, Bartoszek estimated it would take less than 90 days to complete the purchase. On Friday, Bartoszek said it took longer than expected to finalize the purchase because of the complexity of the transaction. He said the property had been a working mill for more than 100 years and there were easements, title and land use issues that had to be resolved. He said the economic downturn did not slow the deal. Bartoszek said the financing is coming from a group of private equity investors. He said all of the financing has been set and will be drawn down as the project achieves specific milestones. He said $10 million has been allocated for the development phase of the project. In the next couple of months, Bartoszek said Laidlaw will draft and execute a definitive contract to sell all the power generated by the plant to Public Service of N.H. The parties this fall announced they had reached agreement that the power would be purchased by PSNH. At the same time, Bartoszek said Laidlaw will be working on the application it will submit to the state Site Evaluation Committee to site, construct, and operate a renewable energy facility. Noting the required application is fairly lengthy, he estimated it will take Laidlaw at least two months to put the application together. Once the application is submitted, the committee has 30 days to accept it and then 240 days to make a decision. With the permitting process expected to take up most of this year, Bartoszek said Laidlaw does not anticipate being able to start work on the boiler until the end of 2009. He said that would point to a start-up date in
the third quarter of 2010. Bartoszek said Carl Belanger will
continue to oversee the property for the company while Laidlaw works to get the project permitted.Bartoszek said he has hundreds of signatures of local residents who support the project and said he believes it is a vocal minority that opposes it. He said is open to discussing ways the biomass plant can help Berlin and the
local economy. “We look forward to working with the community,” he said. The biomass plant will use about 20 acres of the 60 acres Laidlaw is purchasing. Bartoszek said there is room for other projects on the Laidlaw property as well as the remaining 60 acres that North American Dismantling owns. “We see the biomass plant as a catalyst that could create a lot of revitalization on that site,” he said. Laidlaw already has a memorandum of understanding to sell hot water from the biomass plant to the Fraser Papers mill in Gorham. Bartoszek said he is also confident there is sufficient low grade wood to supply the plant despite some recent studies that suggest that may be an issue. He said he expects the wood would come from a variety of sources including local loggers and some from a longer distance. He noted that historically the Berlin and Groveton mills consumed about 1 million tons of low grade wood annually. The Laidlaw
plant would use about 675,000 tons of wood annually.
Bartoszek said the challenge will be to rebuild the wood supply system that existed here. He noted PSNH has been able to supply its wood-burning facility in Portsmouth.

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/BerlinPDF/2009/1/5B.pdf

Greg