Great River Energy completes financing for their DryFiningTM facility
Great River Energy announced the successful closing of a lease financing of their DryFining™ facility (the “Facility”) situated at its Coal Creek Station power plant near Underwood, N.D. The financing was arranged by Global Structured Finance Advisors, LLC (“GSF Advisors”), a financial advisory group specializing in structured financings who are headquartered in Boston. The Facility employs Great River Energy’s DryFining™ process, which uses waste heat from the plant together with a proprietary fluidized bed drying process to remove moisture and impurities from the feedstock lignite to produce refined coal, which increases Coal Creek Station’s efficiency while simultaneously reducing emissions levels. The refined coal produced by the Facility results in significant emissions reductions at the plant thereby qualifying refined coal produced by the Facility for Production Tax Credits (“PTCs”) under Section 45 of the Internal Revenue Code.
An affiliate of The North American Coal Corporation will operate the Facility. It is anticipated that the Facility will produce an average of approximately 6.2 million tons of refined coal per annum to be sold under a long-term agreement to Great River Energy. In addition to the enhanced efficiencies to be achieved by Coal Creek Station, the benefits of the financing to Great River Energy will be passed through to its member distribution cooperatives in the form of lower power costs.
“We are thrilled that this transaction could be completed with counterparties, who are committed to the long term viability of the DryFining™ technology that has been developed by Great River Energy. We are excited about the impact the commercialization of this technology will have for other industry participants with coal fired generation plants,” said Susan Brooks, Treasury Director for Great River Energy.
About Great River EnergyGreat River Energy, headquartered in Maple Grove, MN, is an electric generation and transmission cooperative providing wholesale electric services to 28-member distribution cooperatives throughout Minnesota and a small portion of Wisconsin. Great River Energy is the second largest electric utility in the State of Minnesota with over $3 billion in assets and 2010 operating revenues of approximately $850 million. For more information, please visit Great River Energy’s website at www.greatriverenergy.com.
GSF Advisors is an independent boutique advisory firm that specializes in structuring and arranging large asset based financings for both investors and issuers. GSF Advisors’ core business is the arranging of financing of fixed assets in a manner that efficiently utilizes the available tax benefits to produce the lowest cost financing in a structure, and which also meets the client’s accounting, financial and risk management objectives. In the renewable energy area, GSF’s focus is representing developers and institutional investors to arrange financings or to make investments in utility scale projects. Historically GSF Advisors has represented a diverse mix of developers, utilities, and investors in various tax oriented structures involving solar (photovoltaic and thermal), geothermal, wind, fuel cells and also conventional fossil and nuclear generation. GSF Advisors has an entrepreneurial approach to the development and capitalization of market opportunities. Clients are well served by the extensive industry experience and technical expertise of the group’s personnel. For more information, please visit www.gsfadvisors.com.
