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EQTEC signs equipment sales and service deal for North Fork Community Project

Ireland-headed EQTEC plc (previously REACT Energy plc), a technology solution company for biomass and waste gasification to energy projects has announced that it has signed an equipment sales and services contract with North Fork Community Project LLC (NFCP) in California (CA).

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EQTEC plc has signed an equipment sales and services contract with North Fork Community Project LLC (NFCP) in California.

In June 2019, EQTEC entered into a legally binding agreement to acquire a 19.99 percent interest in NFCP, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed to build and operate a 2 MW biomass project in North Fork, California (CA).

Worth approximately EUR 2.2 million, the equipment sales and services contract has now been executed by all parties. Under the terms of the contract, EQTEC will provide equipment and the supply of engineering and design services to NFCP such that the project can produce sufficient synthetic gas (syngas) quality and quantity to achieve 2 MW on a continuous basis.

Bond approval issued

The SPV was granted final approval by the State of California on July 23, 2019, to issue tax-exempt bonds totaling US$9.3 million and non-tax-exempt bonds totaling US$5.5 million, a key milestone before such bonds can be issued to investors.

The existing members of NFCP, together with EQTEC, are currently finalizing the Interest Purchase Agreement and the Operating Agreement that will govern EQTEC’s 19.9 percent ownership of the project and its involvement as a Managing Member of NFCP. These agreements, together with the issue of the 19.9 percent interest in NFCP, will be executed on financial close.

The project represents the company’s first joint venture under the framework agreement with Phoenix Biomass Energy Inc. (Phoenix) announced in May 2019.

We are delighted that we have finalized the sales contract with North Fork. This, together with the approval of the financing bonds, is a testament to the hard work that both the Phoenix and EQTEC teams have put in to ensure that this project, in which we will have a significant equity interest, reaches financial close. This is a significant step for EQTEC, and is of strategic importance to our business in the USA, in order to unlock the opportunity of recovering clean energy from biomass. It is also a meaningful milestone on our journey to become the de facto technology solution for those wishing to recover clean energy from the elimination of waste. I believe that our partnership with Phoenix in the USA will continue to provide further benefits going forward as we execute our defined growth strategy, commented Ian Pearson, Chairman of EQTEC.

Revised Phoenix NAPA project

In January 2019, EQTEC announced that it had signed its first equipment purchase contract with Phoenix, in relation to a biomass power plant (NAPA Project) located in Napa County, California.  On 9 April 2019, the Company announced that it had successfully delivered and invoiced, the engineering design work for the power plant.  Full payment was received by the Company shortly thereafter.

Commencement of construction was expected to begin in 2019 upon the final granting of permits to Phoenix. However, the NAPA Project SPV has decided to relocate the project to an adjacent site to accommodate a larger 2 MW capacity power plant.

The planning application for the revised plant has already been resubmitted with a permitting decision expected to be received in Q1 2020 and construction and installation is intended to start immediately after receipt;

We continue to be delighted to have EQTEC as a partner. The North Fork project demonstrates how working closely together we can achieve our joint vision of a repeatable, scalable technology solution that could have a big impact on California’s climate challenges and allow us to jointly exploit what we know to be significant opportunities for both parties in California and global biomass distributed energy markets. We continue to look at other pipeline project opportunities with EQTEC as we develop our working relationship in the US market, commented Greg Stangl, CEO of Phoenix Biomass Energy.

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