Mar 5 2014
Geopower Energy Limited, an alternative energy developer, has closed a private debt facility of US$5 million to acquire a joint venture interest in the Blue Mountain Biogas Project near Milford, Utah.
The note was issued by Geopower Energy's wholly owned US subsidiary and subscribed by accredited private investors. Investor demand exceeded the available subscriptions. Geopower used a portion of the capital to acquire the JV interest and will use the remainder of the funds as working capital for new project development.
The Blue Mountain Biogas Project captures methane from swine waste at Murphy-Brown LLC's Circle 4 Farm. Murphy-Brown is the livestock production subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, a $13 billion global food company and the world's largest producer of pork. The methane released from the swine waste is cleaned, conditioned and burned to generate electricity. The electricity is then sold on the grid under a long-term, fixed rate off-take agreement to a Utah municipality. The carbon credits and renewable energy certificates are also sold under long-term, fixed rate agreements, thereby maximizing revenues from the project. The capacity of the project is 3.2 megawatts of renewable energy -- enough to power 3,000 homes.
Geopower intends to offer up to US$8 million of company equity in early 2014 to accelerate development of other renewable and alternative energy projects. This will likely be the only opportunity new investors will have to purchase Geopower Energy stock.
"The strong interest from private investors in our debt offering is a show of confidence in our ability to develop energy projects," said Geopower's managing director and CEO, Ben Mead. "The Blue Mountain Biogas Project is one of the world's largest producers of electrical energy from swine waste, located on the largest pig farm in the western United States. This is a high quality project and will pave the way for Geopower to develop other energy projects."
"Geopower is focused on low-risk energy projects that will generate annuity-type returns. The Blue Mountain Biogas Project is a great example of that."
Geopower is currently developing other projects in waste heat recovery, biomass, mini-hydro and clean coal. Geopower's development model is technology agnostic. Rather, project development is driven by investment criteria that minimize risks to generate base load alternative energy. The company has a global outlook and will seek opportunities that provide strong and reliable returns on investment.