Recent Press

Charlotte Business Journal

December 31, 2010 - Who to Watch 2011

The Charlotte region heads into the new year facing no shortage of major issues. There's the state and local budget crisis, the employment crisis, the housing and lending crisis and, of course, the Carolina Panthers' identity crisis.

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BioEnergy Insight

December 21, 2010 - Forsite moves forward with ReVenture Park

Along the Catawba River in North Carolina, US, commercial real estate development firm Forsite Development is currently developing a 20MW biomass plant, for which it has recently finalised some crucial decisions.

The plant will form part of the ReVenture Park - 667 acres of land, including a solar field, a wastewater treatment facility, energy crop demonstration stands, an ethanol mixing operation and office space for R&D.

Earlier this month Forsite chose ethanol firm ICM to supply the gasification technology for the facility, while Eisenmann Corp. will provide the emissions abatement systems. 'We have been in an exhausting technology validation process,' said the president or Forsite Tom McKittrick. The two systems will enable the plant to reach increasingly stringent mandates, including the US EPA's boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology rule. This is expected to be announced in January but could be delayed until April 2012.

The biomass power plant alone is costing $300 million (€228 million) and, with memorandums of understand signed for municipal solid waste from Mecklenburg County's residential garbage collection and negotiations in late stages for the sale of electricity, it is the most developed part of the whole ReVenture Park.

Before the waste feedstock is utilised at the plant, it will first be processed at another facility. Located off-site, the processing facility will cost $30 million to build, with the ability to handle around 575,000 tonnes of waste annually. Between 180,000 and 200,000 tonnes of waste will be supplied to the biomass plant, which is to be operated by recycling company FCR Casella.

Forsite is now in the process of engineering work required for the air permit before the plant comes online in 2013.

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Charlotte Business Journal

December 17, 2010 - ReVenture eyes commercial composter

Forsite Development President Tom McKittrick says he's in negotiations with an indoor composting company for the ReVenture Park project.

On Friday, McKittrick shared some details of the proposed business with an advisory panel that's vetting the project's anchor, a 20-megawatt waste-to-energy power plant.

ReVenture Park is proposed for a 667-acre Superfund site north of the U.S. National Whitewater Center, just across the river from Mount Holly. Forsite envisions a mix of green businesses at the "eco-industrial" park.

McKittrick says his company had a letter of intent with a Canadian company to bring in a commercial composting facility, but that company backed out because the ReVenture site is too far from its main operations.

Now Forsite is working with a composter based in North Carolina on a 30,000-square-foot facility, he says.

The biggest challenge: squeezing in a 240-foot-wide building on the ReVenture site.

"Six hundred and sixty-seven acres sounds like an incredible amount of dirt," McKittrick says. "But it's tough to get in a building that deep."

The indoor facility would be fitted with a bio-filter to keep down the smell of the composting operations.

"One of the things we are very sensitive to is: Are we creating an odor issue?" he says.

Forsite is also working with the city of Charlotte and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities to sell them an uncontaminated section of the park for a future wastewater treatment plant.

On Thursday, members of the city's economic-development committee got a first look at a $12.5 million deal to transfer property and permits from ReVenture and Clariant Corp., the current owners of the site.

The proposed $197 million plant at Long Creek would be the first built by the city in more than 30 years

McKittrick says Forsite has a contract with Clariant for the site. He hopes to close on the purchase by the end of the year. The companies will continue to work together on cleaning up the contamination on the site, he says.

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Biomass Power and Thermal

December 15, 2010 - Biomass Power major part of eco-park plan

Forsite Development has finalized crucial decisions in the process of developing its 20-megawatt waste-to-energy plant along the Catawba River in Charlotte, N.C., just one part of a major undertaking by the company, as it seeks to transform a 667-acre Superfund site into the region's first eco-industrial area dubbed ReVenture Park.

Most recently, the company announced it has chosen ICM Inc.'s gasification technology, coupled with emissions abatement systems from Eisenmann Corp. "We have been in an exhausting technology validation process," said Forsite President Tom McKittrick. Together, the systems will help the plant reach more stringent new regulations coming from multiple fronts, including the U.S. EPA's boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology rule, which currently is due out in January but could be pushed to April 2012, pending on a court decision on the EPA's extension request.

During the enormous ReVenture Park project, the contaminated land will be recycled and dedicated solely to renewable energy, according to McKittrick. Plans include a solar field, a wastewater treatment facility, energy crop demonstration stands, an ethanol mixing operation, and office space for research and development, among other aspects.

The $300 million biomass power plant is the element of the project furthest along in development, with memorandums of understanding signed for municipal solid waste from Mecklenburg County's residential garbage collection, and negotiations in late stages for the sale of electricity, McKittrick said. The waste feedstock will first be processed at another proposed facility off-site, to be operated by Charlotte-based recycling firm FCR Casella. That $30 million facility will be permitted to process about 575,000 tons of garbage per year, supplying between 180,000 and 200,000 tons to ReVenture's biomass plant, McKittrick said. The power plant will also be capable of using yard debris, although that will be processed separately.

Since the city of Charlotte recently approved those amendments to the garbage routing, allowing for a biomass supply, Forsite is now working on the power plant's air permit. "We are in the process now of engineering work required for the air permit," he said, adding that the permit will drive the timeline for construction and operation. The plant should be operational by 2013 and has consumed 90 percent of the ReVenture project focus from Forsite thus far, McKittrick said. "The anchor project is this 20-megawatt waste-to-energy plant," he said.

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Waste Management World

December 15, 2010 - ReVenture Park Waste to Energy Facility to Utilize Gasification Technology

Charlotte City Council, North Carolina has voted to change its 10-year plan for handling solid-waste - a key step for the ReVenture Park waste to energy facility.

The project is hoping to transform a 667-acre Superfund site along the Catawba River in Charlotte, NC, into the region?s first Eco-Industrial Park.

Forsite Development, lead developer for ReVenture Park says that it will utilize a gasifier designed and commercialized by ICM, Inc. combined with the dual field Wet Electrostatic Precipitator (WESP-2F) technology from Eisenmann for emissions abatement.

The ReVenture Waste to Energy (WtE) project has two major components. A Recycled Fuel Facility is being developed in partnership with Charlotte based FCR Casella, the sixth largest recycling firm in the U.S. and the operator of Mecklenburg County's recycling centre for the past 15 years.

This $30 million facility will take Mecklenburg County's residential garbage through a highly automated process that will remove additional recyclables and the materials that would cause air pollution such as PVC, electronics and batteries.

The remaining 'non-recyclable' material is shredded into an engineered fuel that transforms garbage into a 'Recycled Fuel' for use as the primary feedstock for ReVenture's WTE facility.

This fuel will then be delivered to ReVenture where it will fuel the ICM gasification system producing 20 MW of clean electricity.

The material will be fed into chambers that will convert the fuel into a syngas in a high-heat, low-oxygen environment.

The facility will use ICM's gasification process to convert feedstocks into syngas that can be easily converted to electricity. The Eisenmann Wet Electrostatic Precipitator WESP-2F removes pollutants to the sub micron level providing excellent emissions abatement and meeting minor source permitting targets. http://www.waste-management-world.com/index/waste-to-energy.html

The company says that advantage of utilizing this technology, is the ability to begin with cleanly engineered fuel (not raw garbage) and subsequently gasifying the material in lieu of burning.

ReVenture claims that the gasification system offers a solution that is projected to double Mecklenburg County's recycling rates (raising them potentially as high as 40%), diverting over 85% of the current waste stream from going to the landfill, and creating enough electricity to power approximately 20,000 homes.

"For our WtE facility, we have set a goal of achieving a minor source air permit. The combination of starting with a clean fuel, and then utilizing gasification, will allow us to achieve this goal," said Tom McKittrick, President, of Forsite Development.

"The EPA is considering changes in the air quality requirements for WTE power plants and the ReVenture WTE project is being designed to comply with the newer and more stringent regulations. The combination of ICM's gasification technology and Eisenmann's WESP-2F helps us meet the new regulations."

After a recent 9 - 2 vote by Charlotte city council giving approval to the park, Democrat Patrick Cannon said the project was consistent with the city's goal of becoming a green-energy leader, and similar projects are already operating in Europe. Republican Andy Dulin said the project was being supported by private dollars and should be backed.

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Fox News - Charlotte

December 15, 2010 - Charlotte's Garbage Going to Renewable Energy

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Charlotte will divert its household garbage from landfills to a renewable energy project that will turn it into fuel for electricity power plants.

The Charlotte Observer reported Wednesday that North Carolina's largest city is joining six other Mecklenburg County municipalities to ship garbage to the project, which its developers say could employ 1,000 people.

ReVenture Park would be built on the polluted grounds of a former textile-dye manufacturing plant along the Catawba River. The operation would convert garbage into pellets that could be used for fuel starting in 2012.

State legislators this year allowed electricity produced from ReVenture's fuel to count triple toward a requirement that utilities use or produce electricity from renewable sources.

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Charlotte Observer

December 15, 2010 - ReVenture gets City Council Approval

After a 90-minute debate, the Charlotte City Council voted 9-2 Monday night to change its 10-year plan for handling solid-waste - a key step for the private developers of the proposed ReVenture Park, which would turn waste into energy.

ReVenture Park would be built on a contaminated, 667-acre site on the Catawba River near N.C. 27 and would convert garbage into energy pellets that could be used for fuel, starting in 2012.

Democrats Michael Barnes and Patsy Kinsey voted against the solid-waste amendments, which formalize an agreement that ReVenture would take a portion of the city's garbage. They said they needed more information before moving forward. The Sierra Club also spoke against the project.

"What kind of heavy input will we have?" asked Kinsey, who said she felt the project was being rushed.

Mecklenburg Solid Waste Director Bruce Geldhill told council members they would be able to weigh in on the decision and that the ReVenture project still must be approved by the county and state. The county handles solid waste for Charlotte and six other municipalities in Mecklenburg. Charlotte was the last municipality to approve the change to include ReVenture.

Forsite Development, ReVenture's developer, told council members that similar technology is being used in Europe and there are no problems with smell or other pollution.

Council member Warren Cooksey, a Republican, voted for the agreement. He said if the city changes its mind, it can lobby the county and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to not approve the park.

Democrat Patrick Cannon said the project was consistent with the city's goal of becoming a green-energy leader, and similar projects are already operating in Europe. Republican Andy Dulin said the project was being supported by private dollars and should be backed.

Democrat Jason Burgess said the city will never have every answer about the project and that it might lose the project if it waits.

"It might never happen," Burgess said.

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Charlotte Business Journal

December 14, 2010 - Tax legislation may benefit ReVenture Park

A provision in the tax bill extending the Bush era tax cuts contains a provision that would also extend a tax-credit program for renewable energy projects.

If that passes intact, it could be good news for Forsite Development Inc.'s proposed waste-to-energy project at ReVenture Park.

SNL Energy reports that the U.S. Senate is expected to approve the tax bill - which has dominated Washington since President Obama reached a compromise with Republicans on the Bush tax cuts - as early as today and send it on to the House for action.

The extension of the renewable energy tax grants is part of the Senate bill.

The program, scheduled to end Dec. 31, pays cash in lieu of tax credits for renewable projects. Since renewable startups such as the ReVenture project seldom have sufficient profits to take advantage of the tax credits, the credits themselves are unhelpful to the projects.

But the cash payments can make an immediate impact on the feasibility of the project.

The 20-megawatt biomass plant that Forsite plans to build in the park could qualify for as much as $40 million in tax credits under the program.

Forsite President Tom McKittrick had hoped to be able to take advantage of the tax grant program. However it has been clear for some weeks that he could not get construction started on the project before the Dec. 31 deadline.

So he designed the project to be feasible without the grants. Still, he has said repeatedly that extending the grant program would be good for his project and good for renewable projects generally.

"It would be incredibly beneficial to the industry if they would extend that," he said in September as he was negotiating for financing for the project.

The Senate bill would extend the cash grant program through next year, SNL says. With McKittrick now projecting construction will start at ReVenture in the first half of 2011, the project would qualify for the program again.

SNL notes that the future in the House for the legislation is not clear. Democrats who object to extending tax cuts for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and to changes in the inheritance tax, may amend the bill. If that happens it would have to go back to the Senate again for adoption.

But the provision on energy tax credits is likely to remain intact in the House.

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The Mecklenburg Times

December 10, 2010 - Forsite scraps plans to use Statesville Avenue Site

Tom McKittrick, president of Forsite Development, the developer of the ReVenture Park project, said his company has abandoned plans to use a Statesville Avenue site for a processing center for county garbage that would be burned to make electricity.

An Amble Drive facility, which is on the same road as the county's recycling center, is now the likely location for the facility because of the "significant amount of time" it would take to receive permits for the Statesville Avenue site, McKittrick said.

McKittrick described the change of plans Friday after the Central Piedmont Sierra Club, in a press release issued the same day, said the agency had learned that a proposed land swap deal between the city of Charlotte and ReVenture is dead and that the city is now considering paying ReVenture $6.1 million for land to build a wastewater-treatment plant.

The original plan for ReVenture, a proposed 667-acre eco-industrial park with a plant that would burn the county's garbage to power homes, called for a land swap between the city and ReVenture, Sierra Club said in its release, adding that under the deal the city would exchange the Statesville Avenue landfill site for a portion of the ReVenture site in order to build a wastewater-treatment facility.

A presentation from a city economic development committee meeting held Thursday shows the cost to the city for the land is $6.13 million.

McKittrick said the press release is "completely full of inaccuracies."

That the city has engaged in talks to purchase the land at ReVenture for a wastewater-treatment plant is not new, he said. He declined to release the cost of the purchase that is being discussed between Forsite and the city.

"We've always had two options," McKittrick said. "We were hoping to use Statesville, but Plan B is in the same area. It's right down the street."

City Councilman Andy Dulin said the problem with the Statesville location is that there are many residences near the site.

"There's more homes over there than I knew about it," said Dulin, who sits on the economic development committee and attended the meeting Thursday.

The Sierra Club's press release also claims that Mecklenburg County may be forced to use the Foxhole landfill on U.S. Route 521 near Ballantyne to dispose of its municipal solid waste. Currently, that landfill is only used for construction and demolition debris. The city's municipal solid waste is disposed of in the Charlotte Motor Speedway Landfill, but an operating agreement with that landfill is set to expire June 30, 2012.

"That's completely disingenuous and not true," McKittrick said Friday. "The county always has Foxhole as an option for landfilling, and that was the point that was made yesterday."

He said the county collects 1.3 million tons of residential and commercial waste a year. ReVenture will be able to handle 575,000 tons of that waste and use it as a fuel source for its biomass incinerator.

"That's a substantial number," Dulin said. "If City Council wants to be a leader in the nation in energy, we owe it to our community to look at things like this."

City spokeswoman Kim McMillan said a resolution, which will likely be signed Monday at a City Council meeting, does not financially obligate the city in any way. The resolution to amend the county's 10-year solid waste management plan merely allows for Reventure to continue the process of applying for permits, she said.

McKittrick said Forsite cannot submit permit applications with the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources unless it is listed as an option on the county's solid waste management plan.

ReVenture is slated for the former Clariant Corp. chemical plant site. The location along the Catawba River is a Superfund site, a federal designation given to heavily contaminated areas that pose health and environmental risks.

McKittrick said Forsite is still interested in redeveloping the Statesville Avenue location for a separate project in the future.

Charlotte Business Journal

December 10, 2010 - Forsite negotiating deal to sell ReVenture's excess fuel pellets

Forsite Development Inc.'s planned $156 million waste-to-energy plant at its ReVenture Park has opened another new line of business for the company, which once focused solely on redeveloping industrial sites.

Forsite is negotiating with a large electricity producer to sell the fuel pellets it and FCR Recycling will process from municipal waste. The pellets will be used in converted coal plants to allow such operations to meet new Environmental Protection Agency regulations expected early next year.

Forsite President Tom McKittrick outlined the plan last week at a meeting of Mecklenburg County's ReVenture Advisory Council. He declined to identify the company ...

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Charlotte Chamber

Forsite Development chooses ICM Inc. to provide gasifier technology for ReVenture Park - 145 new jobs to be created

Forsite Development, lead developer for ReVenture Park, today announced its selection of the biomass gasifier technology for its proposed Waste-To-Energy (WTE) project. ReVenture Park will be utilizing a gasifier designed and commercialized by ICM, Inc. of Colwich, Kansas. EISENMANN Corporation of Crystal Lake, Illinois, will provide the Wet Electrostatic Precipitator (WESP) technology for emission abatement. "Forsite selected ICM after performing an exhaustive technology validation process to find a system that could produce the lowest emission footprint possible and provide the greatest potential for long term reliability," said Tom McKittrick, president of Forsite.

The ReVenture waste-to-energy project has two major components:

• A Recycled Fuel Facility that is being developed in partnership with Charlotte-based FCR Casella, the sixth largest recycling firm in the U.S. and the operator of Mecklenburg County's recycling center for the past 15 years. That project was recently announced on October 22. This $30 million facility will take Mecklenburg County's residential garbage through a highly automated process that will remove additional recyclables and the materials that would cause air pollution such as PVC, electronics and batteries. The remaining "non-recyclable" material is shredded into an engineered fuel that transforms the garbage into a "Recycled Fuel" that will be used as the primary feedstock for ReVenture's WTE facility.
• This fuel will then be delivered to ReVenture where it will fuel the ICM gasification system producing 20 megawatts of clean electricity. The material will be converted into a syngas through a high heat, low oxygen process and will be used to fuel a traditional steam turbine electric power generation process, similar to a natural gas power plant. The capital investment for these facilities is estimated at $156 million and will create a total of 145 new jobs.

Charlotte Chamber president Bob Morgan praised the latest development at ReVenture Park. "Forsite Development is on the cutting edge for alternative and renewable energy projects and we are pleased that Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and the Charlotte metro area will be beneficiaries of their work." He added, "This continues a tidal wave of activity in the energy sector in Charlotte, joining other announcements in 2010 by Shaw Power Group, SPX, ABB, Siemens Energy, Siemens Nuclear, Babcock and Wilcox and Celgard that are positioning Charlotte as the New Energy Capital."

The gasification system emissions expected for ReVenture Park are substantially lower than traditional mass burn combustion technologies. "Our gasifier technology can efficiently convert engineered fuel and deliver power to the grid. As a result of this process you will reduce the amount of fossil-fuel burned to make electricity as well as reducing the harmful air pollution and methane greenhouse gas emissions from landfills. We're excited to be a part of Forsite's ReVenture Park," said Dave Vander Griend, president and CEO of ICM, Inc.

The gasification system can offer a solution that is projected to double Mecklenburg County's recycling rates (raising them potentially as high as 40 percent) diverting over 85 percent of the current waste stream from going to the landfill, and creating enough electricity to power approximately 20,000 homes.

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Charlotte Business Journal

December 2, 2010 - Forsite signs ICM Inc. to provide technology for ReVenture plant

Another important piece has fallen into place for ReVenture Park's proposed waste-to-energy biomass plant. Forsite Development Inc. has signed ICM Inc. to provide the technology for the gasified-waste plant. And Forsite says the project will cost $156 million to build and will create 145 jobs.

The Charlotte company also says the contractor building the plant's emissions-control equipment will ensure the operation meets more stringent federal regulations expected next year for waste-to-energy plants.

The 20-megawatt plant will anchor the 667-acre ReVenture Park for clean-energy businesses.

Forsite still hasn't announced yet its financing for the project. And it's unclear whether the company can get the project started by year end. Failure to do so could cost Forsite millions in federal tax credits that are slated to expire Dec. 31.

Still, the deal with Colwich, Kan.-based ICM is a key step. Forsite President Tom McKittrick is slated to appear Friday at a meeting of the ReVenture Advisory Council to answer questions about the technology the plant will use and how it will qualify as only a minor source of emissions.

Mecklenburg solid-waste officials have been eager for information about that technology. The county has agreed to pay Forsite and FCR Recycling to take its trash for conversion into fuel for the plant. That is supposed to start July 1, 2012. But questions have been raised about whether the plant will be able to meet environmental regulations and qualify as a minor-pollution source.

McKittrick and ICM say they will be able to put those questions to rest.

"As a result of this process, you will reduce the amount of fossil fuel burned to make electricity as well as reducing the harmful air pollution and methane greenhouse-gas emissions from landfills," says Dave Vander Griend, ICM's chief executive.

Forsite proposes to process waste that Mecklenburg County would otherwise send to a landfill, using a $30 million recycling facility to convert the waste into pellets. The fuel pellets will then be converted into a synthetic gas in a high-heat, low-oxygen process. The gas will be used to power a traditional steam turbine to produce electricity.

Emissions will be significantly lower than those from fossil-fuel plants, McKittrick has said. Eisenmann Corp. of Crystal Lake, Ill., will design the pollution-control equipment to further cut emissions at the plant, he says.

McKittrick has long said the key for ReVenture will be finding a technology that burns cleanly enough to qualify the plant as a minor source of emissions.

"The combination of starting with a clean fuel, and then utilizing gasification, will allow us to achieve this goal," he says. "Environmentally responsible projects are a core focus for all projects within ReVenture."

Bill Gupton, who chairs the Sierra Club's Charlotte chapter, says he welcomes ReVenture's announcement but looks forward to learning more details.

"Our concerns remain because there is no large-scale gasification plant in the U.S., and the emission profiles of gasification plants (in Europe) are similar to traditional incinerators," he says.

ICM is better known for building biofuel refineries than for designing power-plant technology. Last year, it got a $25 million federal stimulus grant to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in St. Joseph, Mo.

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dBusinessNews

October 22, 2010 - Forsite Development , FCR Recycling to Partner on State-of-the-Art Recycled Fuel Facility of Mecklenburg County

Charlotte - Forsite Development, lead developer for ReVenture Park, announced today that it will team with FCR Recycling and its community energy solution approach for the design and operation of a $30 million dollar "Recycled Fuel" facility that will vastly improve Mecklenburg County's recycling rates and transform non recycling recoverable waste into a fuel that can be utilized to create renewable electricity.

This Recycled Fuel will be used to power the proposed 30-megawatt Renewable Energy Biomass power plant to be developed at ReVenture Park. The 667-acre "Eco Industrial" park is being developed on the former Clariant Corp. chemical plant site in western Mecklenburg County.

The Recycled Fuel will be created by processing waste through a state of the art system that will maximize the recovery of recyclables, and eliminate materials that can cause air pollution during energy conversion, like PVC, electronics and batteries. The processing system will further optimize the physical and chemical characteristics of the fuel with FCR's proprietary engineered fuel technologies and densifying it into a renewable fuel.

Forsite President, Tom McKittrick, states: "the utilization of Recycled Fuel as our feedstock is the single greatest difference between our project and a conventional Waste To Energy Plant that burns raw garbage. We are laser focused on ensuring our project is environmentally responsible and does not contribute to air pollution. We interviewed firms across the country and found FCR Recycling to be by far the industry's leading expert for transforming garbage into a renewable engineered fuel suitable for creating clean electricity."

The project will likely be developed at the closed Statesville Avenue Landfill site located at I-85 and Statesville Avenue Road. Beyond the significant new investment, the project will also create more than 100 new green jobs in the County and is slated to be operational April of 2012. The facility will dramatically increase Mecklenburg County's recycling rate, and divert approximately 340,000 tons of waste annually from local landfills. Over the life of the project, the amount of trash diverted would be enough to completely fill Bank of America Stadium.

"ReVenture is the most innovative and sustainable large scale project that I have seen in my 25 years in the recycling business," said Sean Duffy, Vice President of FCR Recycling. "We have spent the last 5 years perfecting our design for Recycled Fuel and we are thrilled to have been selected as Forsite's waste processing partner. With this project, Charlotte will solidify its leadership position in sustainable practices among major municipalities. Ultimately, we hope this project will show other cities there are significantly better ways to manage waste over simply burying garbage in a landfill."

The Recycled Fuel process will represent a significant stride towards Zero Waste. The aggressive recycling recovery part of this project will not only harvest hundreds of thousands of tons of renewable resources, it will insure Mecklenburg County is fully compliant with the North Carolina law which bans bottles and cans from landfills and dramatically improve the environmental footprint of the County.

Project Facts:

• Combined with Mecklenburg County's single stream recycling efforts, the project is likely to push the County residential recycling rate to greater than 35% and landfill diversion rate to levels in excess of 65%.
• Offset more than 250,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions annually by recovering additional recyclables from the waste stream.
• The Recycled Fuel created from the project will produce enough green electricity to power more than 30,000 homes each year.
• Processing facility is expected to create more than 100 new jobs and $5,000,000 annually in new tax base.
• Offset more than 95,000 metric tons of COo2 equivalent emissions annually by replacing coal to produce base load power.

About FCR Recycling:

Headquartered Charlotte, FCR Recycling has operated the Mecklenburg County recycling center for more than 20 years. The company employs 95 people in Charlotte and operates 21 recycling facilities in 11 states. FCR Recycling recovers and markets more than 1.2 million tons of recyclables each year, and has managed recycling construction projects totaling more than $250 million. FCR Recycling has retained Bulk Handling Systems (BHS) of Eugene, OR for the design and manufacture of the state-of-the art processing equipment.

About Forsite Development:

Forsite Development, Inc., located in Charlotte, is a commercial real estate development firm focused exclusively on acquiring corporate surplus industrial real estate for the purpose of redeveloping these properties in an economically and environmentally responsible way. Forsite's success is measured by its ability to breathe new life into these underutilized assets and the communities in which they are located.

About ReVenture:

The ReVenture Park project is transforming a 667-acre Superfund site along the Catawba River in Charlotte into the region's first Eco-Industrial Park. This dynamic and multi-faceted initiative features multiple clean-energy projects and will advance North Carolina's environmental and economic goals by attracting a myriad of renewable energy and alternative fuel projects. The Eco-Industrial Park is designed to leverage synergies between multiple sustainable components, including a biomass waste-to-energy power plant, solar fields, incubator labs, wastewater treatment and reuse, and R&D facilities. ReVenture is poised to become a national model for innovative redevelopment of Brownfield industrial properties that are similarly situated.

Charlotte Business Journal

October 21, 2010 - FCR Recycling joins ReVenture Project

The ReVenture energy project has announced its first development: a $30 million plant to convert solid waste to fuel for the park's proposed biomass plant.

FCR Recycling, the Charlotte-based company that has run Mecklenburg County's recycling center for 20 years, will be ReVenture developer Forsite Development Inc.'s partner in the recycled fuel plant.

The project is expected to create 100 jobs. It probably won't be built in the 667-acre park on the Catawba River. Rather, it is likely the plant will be built at Charlotte's closed Statesville Avenue Landfill near Interstate 85, says Tom McKittrick, Forsite's president.

He has proposed to swap the landfill property for land at the ReVenture site, which the city could use for a new wastewater treatment plant.

McKittrick says solid waste from Mecklenburg County will be taken to the new fuel plant. FCR will remove recyclable waste and materials that would cause air pollution, such as PVC piping and batteries.

"FCR will process into a clean-burning fuel for the plant, which gives us a great head start on building a low-emission power producer," McKittrick says.

ReVenture has yet to choose a partner or the technology for the 30-megawatt biomass plant McKittrick has described as the heart of the energy park. That announcement is expected soon.

Sean Duffy, vice president of FCR, says his company has spent five years working on its design for a plant to recycle waste into a clean-burning fuel. "Ultimately we hope this project will show other cities there are significantly better ways to manage waste (than) simply burying garbage in a landfill," he says.

McKittrick announced plans for ReVenture a year ago. In addition to the biomass plant, he plans to eventually have a solar-panel field and other clean-energy businesses in the development. He has said the project could involve a $1 billion investment and create 1,000 jobs.

October 20, 2010 - How Energy Parks Can Energize Economic Development

Economic developers are well aware of the value of industrial parks. The same concept can be borrowed to address another important facet of economic development: The growing need for electricity, which could jump by a third by 2030 according to some studies.

The concept is 'energy parks.' Multi-functional energy sites are being explored on various scales using various technologies. Learning about and strategically using the energy park concept can bolster economic development and support a wide array of industries.

Energy parks are an evolving concept, and the definition is still a fluid one. "The energy park model starts with an existing post-industrial site with infrastructure," says Lisa Lee Morgan, managing partner of CalorEnergy, a renewables consulting firm in Charlotte, N.C. "Site redevelopment uses the infrastructure and integrates new technologies in renewable energy, waste recovery, water treatment and reuse into a sustainable industrial asset for the community."

Some of the infrastructure assets on a checklist for an energy park location, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, include:

• Land
• Buffer zones
• Structures/equipment
• Roads
• Rail lines
• Transmission facilities
• Steam
• Natural resources (e.g., surface or ground water)
• Site environmental characterization data

Large government sites can already have security features in place, too.

While these assets may be traditional, an energy park's end-game is far from conventional. Morgan characterizes the final product as an eco-industrial park, because carbon-free or low-emission generation is emphasized with an efficiency kicker.

Energy sites have been fairly one-dimensional - a coal or gas plant producing electricity, for instance. Energy parks purposefully expand the technical functionality of a site. It's a mix of facility types and purposes. For example:

• Generation can be from solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, nuclear, clean fossil or hydrogen generation. By definition, this list shows that energy parks can be small or large.
• Distribution: Smart grid technologies can be incorporated into new facilities.
• Storage: The developing systems of mass energy storage can be tested and refined.
• Manufacturing: Sites can align with other light energy manufacturing, such as solar panels, wind turbines and energy conservation materials.

Tapping into the benefits of an energy park requires careful analysis, incorporating the important assets of a region to aid growth. "It's like an industrial park, where natural competitive advantages - local policy, labor, geographical - are incentives for this specialized business to locate and where a more efficient supply chain develops," says Bill Linton, an energy business development expert in Greenville, S.C.

Think non-traditionally when envisioning an energy park. For example, in Charlotte, a proposed energy park, called ReVenture Park, plans to delist a 667-acre (270-hectare) Super Fund location that was a textile dye manufacturing site that is largely remediated. When complete, the site will house a biomass power facility fed by refuse-derived-fuel, a solar array, a state-of-the-art waste water plant, greenway thread trail and space for light manufacturing and offices for energy and environmental small businesses.

Post-industrial sites abound. The EPA estimates that there are approximately 490,000 sites and 15 million acres (6 million hectares) of potentially contaminated property across the U.S., including Superfund, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Brownfields and abandoned mine sites.

Energy parks also mean jobs, a key factor when so many communities are struggling with unemployment. Charlotte's privately funded ReVenture project, for example, will take a site that employs fewer than 30 people to a potential of 1,000.

Careful implementation of the energy park concept provides benefits beyond routine economic development, including:

• New, clean energy and a clean energy industry, including supply chains
• Integrated approach to energy production, distribution, storage and utilization
• Energy production close to major industry users
• Potential R&D for the next generation of energy production
• Environmental sustainability
• Reduced emission of greenhouse gases for new energy
• Liabilities turn into assets
• Models that can be applied to other sites

The economic development cycle of energy parks, according to Bill Linton, "... would result in a flow of capital back into the region. This economic profit can feed on itself creating more investment in assets, competency and supply chain development, and more exports."

The catalyst for energy parks is not just economic development. Linton notes, "Energy security is national security. We are too dependent on foreign energy sources. Add to the mix the fear of shortages, advancement of technologies for producing energy, available Department of Energy assets - due to reduced military missions - and there are a lot of possibilities. Why can't we produce more energy of our own?"

Perhaps Lisa Lee Morgan sums up the opportunity for America when it comes to energy parks: "The landscape is littered with post industrial real estate, often in an urban area or an immediate suburb location. These sites can be brought back to a productive life and provide a new service for our nation."

Charlotte Business Journal

October 1, 2010 - Forsite earn honors

Charlotte companies and leaders fared well in the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association's annual awards announced Thursday at its annual meeting in Winston-Salem, winning or sharing awards in three of the five categories.

Forsite Development Inc. won the 2010 Business Innovation award for its proposed ReVenture Park project.

Forsite proposes to convert a 667-acre Superfund environmental remediation site on the Catawba River. President Tom McKittrick is negotiating financing for a biomass plant of up to 80 megawatts of capacity that will be the heart of the project. Long-term plans call for a solar farm, a wastewater treatment plant and other sustainable businesses that could eventually employ as many as 1,000 workers.

N.C. SEA says Forsite is "not only a leader in North Carolina. ReVenture is poised to become a national model for innovative redevelopment of Brownfield industrial properties that are similarly situated."

The 2010 Business Leadership Award went to Charlotte-based Argand Energy Solutions, which designs and install solar, wind and energy-efficiency projects.

"From installing solar panels at local schools across our state to educate students about solar power to training new solar installers, green builders and architects, Argand Energy and its staff is widely promoting ... the benefits of sustainable energy solutions," N.C. SEA says. "Since their small start outside of Charlotte in 1999 to expanding to five locations in three states, Argand Energy represents what many companies entering North Carolina's sustainable energy market would like to replicate."

State Sen. Dan Clodfelter (D-Mecklenburg) shares the 2010 Legislator of the Year Award with state Rep. Hugh Holliman (D-Davidson). N.C. SEA calls Clodfelter "one of the strongest supporters and advocates for sustainable energy in the North Carolina Senate."

Since the state passed its renewable-energy standards in 2007, Clodfelter has worked to expand the 35% renewable-energy tax credit and led efforts to broaden North Carolina's manufacturing tax credit to help industrial companies shift into the sustainable-energy market, the association says.

The 2010 Community Leadership Award went to the N.C. A&T State University Center for Energy Research & Technology in Greensboro and its director, Harmohindar Singh.

And John Blackburn, former chair of Duke University's economics department, was the 2010 inductee to the N.C. Solar Hall of Fame. Blackburn has long been a critic of coal power plants in the state and a fierce advocate for greater use of energy efficiency and renewable sources to meet the state's energy needs.

WFAE 90.7FM

September 21, 2010 - Wanted: Panel Members To Vet ReVenture

Mecklenburg County's Waste Management Advisory Board is putting together a 20-member panel to evaluate the ReVenture Park project and its proposed biomass power plant.

The advisory board - which has served for more than 20 years as a citizens panel over solid waste issues in Mecklenburg County - has already picked five of its own to serve on the ReVenture council. They are: Linda Ashendorf, Ollie Frazier, Jeremy O'Brien, Rita Plyler and Brett Rhinehardt.

Keep an eye on this link for more details on how to apply for a seat on the ReVenture council. The county's waste management board will meet Oct. 4 to review candidates.

Residency is not required to join, says Bruce Gledhill, the county's solid-waste management director. Citizens and business representatives from Mount Holly, the Gaston County city located on the other side of the Catawba River from the ReVenture site, would be able to participate.

The ReVenture project is considered a solid-waste issue because its anchor is a waste-to-energy plant that could generate 30 megawatts to more than 80 megawatts depending on the final design of facility. The developer is Forsite Development led by Tom McKittrick. Its primary equity partner and part owner is The Springs Co. of Lancaster.

Mecklenburg County has been mulling a deal that would pay ReVenture Park up to $10 million annually to take its residential trash and burn it to produce electricity. The proposed contract would end Mecklenburg's use of the Speedway Landfill operated by Republic Services Inc.

Meanwhile, Charlotte City Council is considering a land swap to take part of the ReVenture site for the future $197 million Long Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, the first to be built by the city in more than 30 years.

The council comes as three local environmental organizations have raised opposition over parts of the project - in particular, the potential environmental and health impacts from incinerating trash, yard waste and sewage sludge to generate energy.

The Central Piedmont chapter of the Sierra Club has taken the lead in outreach against the biomass power plant with the creation of the Incinerator Free Mecklenburg campaign.

The group sent out letters this week to Gov. Bev Perdue, four state senators and nine state representatives as well as the main administrators, mayors and all elected officials from Charlotte, Matthews, Davidson, Huntersville, Pineville, Cornelius and Mecklenburg County.

At issue:

• whether or not the plant is technically an incinerator, and
• whether the plant will require an ardous Title V "major source" air quality permit.

"This is a moot point until we know what technology ReVenture is going to be using," said Connie Harris, executive director of Journey Toward Sustainability.

The developers of ReVenture have yet to announce what kind of technology they will use for the biomass power plant. McKittrick has spent the past few weeks pulling together financing for the development so he can start construction before Dec. 31, the deadline for a critical grant program.

September 2010 - Carolina Green Industry Network...From Our President

DAVIDSONNEWS.NET

July 23, 2010 - Town supports county renewable energy venture

A company called ReVenture wants to change the way communities across the country deal with waste, starting with plans for a renewable energy business park on 667 acres on the Catawba River in northwest Mecklenburg County. In approving changes in the county solid waste management plan this month, the town has thrown its support behind the idea.

At its July 13 meeting, Davidson's Town Board unanimously approved proposed changes to the county's solid waste management plan that would allow the county to contract with ReVenture for the recycling of yard waste. Town officials call the proposal exciting. Representatives from Mecklenburg County Solid Waste are meeting with cities throughout the county to ask for approval of the changes.

"I'm coming before you for a simple amendment to the solid waste management plan, but it has significant impact to how we manage solid waste in Mecklenburg County," Mecklenburg County Solid Waste Director Bruce Gledhill said before the board's vote on July 13. (See our coverage of the July 13 meeting.)

The ReVenture project would redevelop an existing hazardous-waste site that formerly belonged to Southern Dye Stuff. Chemicals seeped into the ground when the site belonged to Southern Dye Stuff, landing it on the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund list of contaminated sites.

ReVenture would take up to 50,000 tons of county yard waste per year and use it to create fuel in a biomass power plant. Biomass encompasses the diverse fuels that can be made from timber, agricultural and food processing wastes or from fuel crops grown specifically for electricity generation. Most biomass power plants burn lumber, agricultural or construction and demolition wood waste.

Last year, Mecklenburg County handled 92,000 tons of yard waste.

"They would produce a fuel from that material," Mr. Gledhill said. "That is consistent with what we do now. About 40 percent can be processed. A year from now ReVenture would take 50,000 tons of our yard waste."

ReVenture also would take 370,000 tons of solid waste the cities and the county.

"The prospective agreement would take the waste from the county once the agreement with the landfill behind the Charlotte Motor Speedway expires," Gledhill said, adding that the landfill by the speedway is owned by Republic.

Waste would start moving to ReVenture in 2012 at a cost of $25 per ton. Currently, the cost is $26.50 per ton.

"This is a 20-year relationship we would go forward with," Mr. Gledhill said.

Tom McKittrick, president of ReVenture developer Forsite Development, told the town board the 667-acre site is zoned industrial and is located about 1.4 miles off Catawba River.

"It is currently listed as a Superfund site. We've been working with the EPA for a year to remove it from that list," Mr. McKittrick said.

The company is also working to get a "brownfield" agreement with the state. "Our redevelopment plan is to create a renewable energy industrial park," Mr. McKittrick said.

He said the biomass power plant would be the anchor. Plans also may include a water treatment plan, a 4-megawatt solar plant on a closed landfill and alternative fueling stations.

"The country is littered with large-scale industrial tracts. We think this a viable plan to use what's there and promote renewable energy," he said. "This is the largest project of its type in the country. We're making extensive progress."

Part of the plan includes acquiring the closed landfill, a 150-acre piece of property on Statesville Road. That landfill closed in 1970.

"This is the largest project of its type in the country," McKittrick said. "We're making extensive progress."

Some environmental groups have voiced concerns about the proposed project.

Last week, the Central Piedmont Sierra Club and Sustain Charlotte launched a campaign against construction of the proposed incinerator.

Individuals from the Central Piedmont Sierra Club, SustainCharlotte and the Catawba Riverkeeper raised concerns that the waste will be incinerated and regarding the proposed wastewater treatment plant. Sustain Charlotte and the Sierra Club concerns included the documented public health and environmental impacts of incinerating garbage as well as the increased cost of incineration to taxpayers compared to waste reduction through increased reuse and recycling.

Mr. McKittrick told the Town Board the group has been working with the environmental groups to address their concerns.

"We're working really hard with all the environmental groups to make sure we're addressing all of their concerns," he said. "Concerns are air emissions and recycling. Are we competing with recycling?"

Mr. McKittrick said the ReVenture project would complement the county's recycling program. He added that the project is looking at gasification.

"We're looking at a gasification concept. We're not proposing an incinerator," he said. "We think this is a great use of this site."

Any property not used in the project would be put into a conservation easement, McKittrick said.

"It's an exciting prospect of turning waste into energy," Davidson Mayor John Woods said about the project.

Mr. McKittrick said the project is focused on turning waste streams into fuel or energy.

"We're in a paradigm shift on how waste streams are handled," he said.

Charlotte Business Journal

July 23, 2010 - Forsite Development hits critical mass for ReVenture
What top business and civic leaders are saying about key issues in the news

But he admits he may have found it hard to get the project moving without legislation passed this month by the N.C. General Assembly.

The Cleanfields Act focuses on the 50-megawatt biomass plant at the center of ReVenture. A primary provision would allow the utility that buys the power - widely expected to be Duke Energy Carolinas - to get triple renewable-energy credits on the first 20 megawatts of the plant's capacity.

The credits are key to utilities in meeting state law that phases in requirements for the use of renewable energy. By 2021, N.C. utilities must produce 12.5% of the power they sell from renewable sources.

The triple credits make the biomass venture economically competitive. Because McKittrick plans to use relatively new - but environmentally more friendly - technology, the price of power from the plant could have prevented the project from moving ahead.

Obstacles remain. This week, local environmental groups criticized plans to burn waste at the site. But McKittrick, president of Forsite Development Inc., remains optimistic. He sat down with the Charlotte Business Journal to talk about where the project is, and what lies ahead.

How important was the Cleanfields Act to ReVenture?

For our biomass project, I would tell you it was a "make or break" event. The additional renewable-energy credits that creates make it possible for us to have an economically viable project. And without the biomass project, I think ReVenture would achieve a fraction of its real potential. The local delegation in Raleigh helped us get this legislation passed. It was an incredible process to see them get behind this bill and make sure it passed in the short session. It was a Herculean effort, filled with drama, to get it across the goal line.

Biomass has always been the first priority project for ReVenture, hasn't it?

It really is. It's basically the heartbeat of the whole project. The primary economics for ReVenture come from this biomass project. If that were to go away, everything that we're doing gets exponentially more difficult.

What happens next?

We've hired Shaw Power to do an analysis of the two final options that we are considering. As you know, gasification has become our primary focus for the biomass plant, and that's a new technology. And because it's new, it adds a layer of complication to an already complicated project.

In unison, we've been having some very detailed conversations with private-equity funds that are interested in providing financing for the project. I will tell you that the activity level has ratcheted up significantly with the passage of the Cleanfields Act.

Are both the two finalists gasification processes?

They are. They are similar but different. But at the end of the day, they are both gasification. And their real benefit is for significantly less emissions than a more traditional design. However, we have to keep the options open to fall back to a traditional stoker-boiler design in the event we hit a roadblock with financing or permitting. Those (traditional) technologies have advanced a long ways. They're more established, and we have to keep that open as an option. But for now I would tell you that likelihood is remote.

Has there been any progress on the other projects - the wastewater plant, the private companies that may have an interest in locating there?

On the wastewater-treatment plant, the city has become fully engaged now. We are making great progress with the land sale to accommodate the plant. Those discussions are going well. (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities) is continuing to pursue the permitting for that project. So that is definitely moving in the right direction.

There are multiple other projects that we are either in discussions about or in negotiations with (on) different technology project types. We've had to focus on this biomass plant, again, because if that doesn't happen, the rest of the project gets significantly more challenging.

Once we get the specifics pinned down on the biomass, we are going to redial our energies onto these other projects. And some of them are fairly far down the road.

The progress had been slower than you originally thought. Has the pace been frustrating?

I wouldn't say it's been frustrating. The pace has slowed because we elected to fully vet this new gasification as an option. However, we started this project in October. So if you look at the progress, I think it's significant. I think we've cleared many hurdles.

There are still lots of mountains left to climb. However, I am not at all frustrated with where we are. I think we've made phenomenal progress on a project that is very, very complicated. I definitely think things are starting to pick up. We are in some negotiations that are critical for the project. It feels like we've finally crested the hill. There's still a lot of work to do, but I'm very pleased with the momentum.

The Cleanfields Act is clearly targeted to this project. Are there changes that will need to be made in North Carolina to be able to repeat this project elsewhere?

Let me first say North Carolina is very fortunate to have a renewable-portfolio standard. I believe we're the only Southeastern state to have one. However, the bill has some flaws. Specifically, the utilities can only choose renewable projects based on price. There is no credit given for economic development or the utilization of new technologies that might be more expensive. And to me, that's going to encumber other projects like ReVenture from happening.

So there are clearly some changes that need to happen in the bill. The environmental groups that we worked with throughout the process of getting this legislation passed have asked me to lend some support on those revisions next year. And I've committed to do that.

At the end of the day, I want to do more of these projects, not less. The way the bill's currently drafted, it will be tough to duplicate this project.

I know the environmental groups are interested in increasing the renewable-energy portfolio standards requirements. Will you support that?

I think we need to increase the REPS. I think that's a great idea. We could support more renewable projects, and we also could figure out ways that other types of renewable projects are justified if you are creating economic development or using new technologies (with a better environmental footprint). There's got to be a better way of selecting renewable projects than strictly on price.

You had a business: Forsite has been redeveloping industrial properties in more traditional ways. What made you move out into this uncharted area?

When the financial crisis hit, it was as if the world stopped on its axis. We buy big, empty industrial buildings in small markets. And the debt market for that business model is gone. Maybe forever.

So we had two choices: Sit on the sidelines and hope the world gets better or figure out a way to take our skill set and utilize it in this new market that was being created with the clean energy economy.

I think taking a large, contaminated industrial tract and developing alternative and renewable-fuel projects is the next natural progression for Forsite.

You went out to get support from the local governments, the environmental groups and the communities that will be affected by ReVenture. Do you think you've gotten that work done, or is there more you need to do?

We've made a conscious effort to be proactive in reaching out to all the stakeholders, especially the environmental groups. While we've got a good start there and laid a good foundation, I believe they trust us and believe in what we're trying to create, there is continuous work we have to do to maintain their support of the project. They are going to be focused on air emissions. We understand that. And that's one of the driving reasons we decided to focus on gasification.

Their other concerns are whether we would be competing with recycling. We've addressed that. We think it's the right thing to do. We're incorporating a recycling component on the front end of our refuse-derived fuel process that will pull additional recyclables out of (municipal solid waste) above and beyond what Mecklenburg County is currently doing with curbside recycling. So that will enhance that recycling effort.

If we can keep an open dialogue going with them, I am confident that we can keep their support.

Carolina Weekly

July 23, 2010 - Davidson endorses ReVenture trash-reuse idea

DAVIDSON - Davidson commissioners gave their endorsement - and promises of the town's trash - to a company trying to launch ReVenture Park on the site of Clariant's inactive Superfund site on the Catawba River.

Bruce Gledhill, Mecklenburg County's solid waste management director, and Tom McKittrick, president of Forsite Development, came to the town board July 13 to explain Forsite's plans to develop a green-energy industrial park on land that's on the federal Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund list.

If Forsite gets the federal and state environmental permits it needs, Gledhill explained the county has agreed in principle to begin funneling about 370,000 tons of solid waste to ReVenture Park, rather than the landfill operated by Republic Services near Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The county will pay ReVenture to shred and use the solid waste to fuel a proposed 49-megawatt biomass plant, Gledhill said. McKittrick stressed to Davidson commissioners that the biomass plant is different from an incinerator, using a different type of combustion that will have to meet all air-quality standards.

Under the proposed agreement, the county, Charlotte and its six towns will pay ReVenture Park $25 a ton - slightly less than now paid to Republic Services - to process all that solid waste into electricity.

Gledhill is making presentations to all the towns now, so new agreements can be ready by July 1, 2011, when the county's contract with the Republic landfill expires.

Charlotte Business Journal

July 9, 2010 - Inside process that won ReVenture support

The bill to push development of the proposed biomass power plant at ReVenture Park appeared for the first time in the N.C. House on June 10. But members of the Charlotte delegation started working on it nine months earlier.

That's when Rep. Thom Tillis and Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Republican and Democrat, respectively, from Mecklenburg, first met with Tom McKittrick, chief executive of Forsite Development to talk about ReVenture.

"We thought it was a great project. What we wanted to do was head off all the usual suspects that would oppose it and bring them on board," says Tillis, the House Republican whip.

It took a some legislative sleight of hand. The first version of the bill was introduced in the House as substitute language for a 2009 Senate bill to improve fishery-management plans.

And it took some fancy footwork. A final amendment to allay N.C. Forestry Association concerns was added on the fly Wednesday as the House Energy and Energy Efficiency Committee voted on the bill.

The ReVenture proposal seeks to transform a used industrial site into a power plant that employs high-level technology. The trick was to find a way to make the admittedly expensive redevelopment cost-competitive with simpler biomass plants that rely largely on burning easily combustible products.

The solution had two parts. It offered bonus renewable-energy credits to attract utilities. At the same time, it included sufficient safeguards to persuade environmental groups it was not a back-door effort to undermine the requirements for renewable energy the state adopted in 2007.

It appears to be a rare case in which all sides are generally satisfied with the bill.

Kristen Coracini of the Environmental Defense Fund, who admits the bill just popped up on her radar about two weeks ago, cited a comment by committee member Rep. Cullie Tarleton, (D-Watauga). "He said it was how the sausage machine ought to work."

Tillis was certain Wednesday night the bill would pass. The unanimous vote in the House committee sent the bill to the floor for final readings and approval. It would be in the Senate by Friday - and could even make it there by Thursday afternoon, he said.

Because it was a substitute for a Senate bill passed in 2009, that chamber needed only to vote to concur with the new language.

Tillis insists he and Clodfelter did not spring the bill at the end of the session as a tactic to catch possible opponents off balance. Instead, he said, they and McKittrick used the time to explain the project to potential opponents as well as allies.

McKittrick and Bruce Thompson, McKittrick's lobbyist with the Parker Poe law firm, participated in the effort. Duke Energy kept up with the bill, though spokesman Jason Walls says it did not take an active role in efforts to pass it.

A first step was to convince skeptical environmental groups that McKittrick was committed to meeting the strictest air-quality standards. A decision early in the year to pursue a more expensive and less well-established gasification process, which burns much cleaner than traditional biomass plants, helped allay fears.

McKittrick's group then worked out an agreement this spring with solid-waste officials in Mecklenburg County that assured proponents the wouldn't burn trash that could be recycled. Potential agreements on a wastewater plant at the site removed other potential concerns.

"What was important was that we reached out to the environmental groups and other stakeholders and collaborated on solutions," McKittrick says.

There were a few legislative bumps to smooth out. The legislature is in its short session, and generally that session can consider only those bills that have already passed either the House or the Senate in the long session.

But with consensus building on the ReVenture bill, Mecklenburg legislators got permission in June to introduce the legislation in the House as a substitute to the fisheries bill the Senate approved in 2009.

Then things almost went too well. The bill passed the House Environment Committee so quickly on June 29 that Tillis and Clodfelter had not had a chance to touch base with all the potential opponents.

They quickly organized a series of three stakeholder meetings with environmental groups, the developers, Duke Energy and others.

Elizabeth Ouzts, director of Environment North Carolina, found her concerns either unfounded or addressed by amendments McKittrick and legislative supporters were willing to make.

Forsite was committed to making sure the plant would qualify as a minor source of pollution. It made sure recyclables would be removed from the waste fuel. It agreed not to use whole trees as wood waste - an issue in a separate regulatory battle involving Duke. The bill was limited to make sure other developers could not claim the same bonus renewable-energy credits, which would have made a hash of the 2007 renewables requirements.

"We saw this as a perfectly good project," Ouzts says. "We dropped our opposition." http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2010/07/12/story4.html

Charlotte Business Journal

July 9, 2010 - ReVenture plan appears close to landing key N.C. legislative deal

With a flurry of 11th-hour negotiations, N.C. lawmakers appear poised to act before adjourning today on special legislation to spur development of Forsite Development's ReVenture Energy Park.

The legislation also should make it much more likely that Duke Energy Carolinas will contract to buy the power from the proposed 50-megawatt biomass power plant at the park's heart.

Tom McKittrick, Forsite's chief executive, said Wednesday afternoon there was enough support for the bill to be approved by the House and for the Senate to concur as early as Thursday. "It's just down to logistics and timing," he said of the bill's prospects.

He had been at the legislature that morning, when the House Energy and Energy Efficiency Committee unanimously sent the bill to the House floor for approval Thursday. Plans were to courier the bill to the Senate that afternoon so it could immediately vote its approval. That could happen Thursday afternoon (after press time) or early Friday, observers said.

The bill would offer any utility that buys the power from the ReVenture plant triple renewable-energy credits for electricity produced from its first 20 megawatts of capacity. The state is already requiring utilities to produce up to 12.5% of the energy they sell from renewable sources by 2021. The triple credits reduce how much a utility will have to spend to meet that requirement.

More to the point for Duke, those credits could be used to meet N.C. requirements for it to produce power from chicken waste.

Duke recently said it wouldn't participate in joint efforts among most N.C. utilities to comply with that requirement. Duke said it thought it could meet that standard more effectively on its own. But negotiations with potential chicken-waste power producers have proved difficult.

Duke spokesman Jason Walls says the company is in early-stage negotiations with McKittrick and Forsite to buy power from the biomass plant. But Duke has not taken a position on the legislation.

ReVenture is a 667-acre development Forsite has proposed northwest of Charlotte, along the Mecklenburg-Gastonia county line. Long-term plans call for a 4-megawatt solar plant on the site, a wastewater treatment plant and other sustainable development.

McKittrick proposed the development in October. While progress continues, it has generally gone more slowly than he had expected.

Still, McKittrick plans to start construction of the biomass plant by the end of the year so it will qualify for federal tax incentives.

The legislation before the General Assembly is designed to make the project more competitive economically and give it a shove forward.

The key to starting construction, however, is getting a utility to agree to buy the power from the plant.

While McKittrick says he remains open to other possibilities, he makes it clear that Duke is the likely partner and the preferred option. Until Duke signs a contract to purchase the power, nothing is likely to start on the site.

Duke did not participate in the legislative negotiations during the last week that led to Wednesday's House committee vote.

But the company had an observer sitting in on at least some of the discussions, say people involved.

Carving the renewable-energy credits out of the poultry-waste requirement could clearly be helpful for Duke. But it was a key change for environmental groups.

At their request, the bill was tweaked to ensure it would be a one-time-only offer of bonus renewable energy credits.

Kristen Coracini, an energy policy specialist with the Environmental Defense Fund in Raleigh, says her group worried that giving the triple credits would freeze out development of other renewable projects.

She said her organization was mollified by McKittrick's assurances that Forsite was looking to use a state-of-the-art process to turn solid waste into a gas for burning to produce electricity. That's much cleaner than methods that directly burn waste to produce power.

But the key was making sure the only projects ReVenture would replace would be those designed to burn chicken waste.

Among biomass alternatives, direct burning of such animal waste and wood chips from trees are considered among the dirtiest and least desirable.

"We were never crazy about poultry power to begin with," says Elizabeth Ouzts of Environment North Carolina.

McKittrick and the environmental groups agree on another thing. The need for the bill - and for the whirlwind negotiations to get it approved - demonstrates that lawmakers should take another look at the state's renewable-energy law, passed just three years ago.

Ouzts and Coracini would like to see an increase in the amount of renewable-energy use the state requires of utilities. They also want the law revised to be more selective about what qualifies as a renewable source and what kinds of projects it encourages.

McKittrick agrees. And he says the state needs to consider ways to encourage development of biomass and other renewable-power projects on urban brownfield sites - former industrial tracts that often need environmental mitigation and require expensive permits.

Putting his biomass project in Charlotte increases his expenses in many ways, McKittrick says. For example, the operation will have to compete on price with lost-costs projects such as a wood-chip plant in rural South Carolina.

Because utilities are always looking for the least-expensive alternative, he says, projects like his won't be able to compete without some help from the state. So though he was happy to go along with tailoring the current legislation just for the ReVenture project, the state needs to come up with standing incentives for similar urban projects in the future, he says.

June 18, 2010 - State Legislative Update

Carolina Weekly

June 18, 2010 - Foxx backs ReVenture Park

Reventure, a project to transform a polluted manufacturing site on Belmeade Drive into a green industrial park, has found a friend in Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx.

Foxx praised the work of Tom McKittrick, president of Forsite Development, the company behind Reventure, during a city council update on the project Monday, June 14.

"Private-public partnerships aren't supposed to work this well," Foxx said. "This is the definition of a project that can make our area the new energy capital of the country."

Forsite Development has proposed a 50- to 100-megawatt biomass plant, a biodiesel production company and a 4-megawatt solar-power plant on a 667-acre Superfund site owned by chemical manufacturer Clariant near Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road.

"This is going to evolve into a true public/private collaborative effort," McKittrick said. "It's refreshing. (Officials) are completely engaged now and focused on helping us work through all the issues."

The city and Forsite Development are negotiating a land swap that would exchange the city's former landfill on Statesville Avenue for a portion of Reventure property.

Reventure would use the Statesville Avenue property as a staging area for its biomass power plant that burns household waste and converts that energy to power through a steam turbine. Reventure employees would sort Charlotte's garbage, remove recyclables, and shred the rest before trucking to the biomass plant on Belmeade Drive.

In exchange, Reventure would give the city land at the Clariant site near the city's proposed Longcreek Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant. Securing that land would keep Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities from needing to build a new road to the treatment plant off Whitewater Center Parkway.

But at least one Charlotte-resident doesn't buy in to Reventure's biomass power plant.

Shannon Binns, executive director of the nonprofit SustainCharlotte, told the council that while Reventure's is "is well intended and has many positive projects" he is "deeply concerned about the plan to generate power by incinerating our municipal waste and 80 percent of our compostable yard debris through a process known as gasification."

Biomass power plants, he said, create few jobs when compared to recycling and composting programs and emit pollution comparable to mass burn incinerators.

Council members Michael Barnes and David Howard told Binns they will review Reventure's plans in more detail as the process advances.

As part of the agreement, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities would treat contaminated groundwater from the Clariant site. Companies that Clariant acquired polluted the site from the 1930s to the 1970s by dumping vat dyes, disperse dyes, and specialty chemical products into unlined pits.

Reventure is now waiting for the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the site from its Superfund list before the project can advance. Although McKittrick couldn't say when that could happen, Foxx and city staff said they would support Reventure in anyway they could.

Charlotte Business Journal

June 15, 2010 - ReVenture Gets City Backing

Charlotte City Council gave its blessing to the 667-acre ReVenture Park project at it's Monday night's meeting, but without signing any major deals.

Council agreed to throw its support behind Forsite Development's ambitious plans to redevelop Clariant Corp.'s Superfund site in northwest Mecklenburg County near Mt. Holly. That may mean lobbying on behalf of the project by Queen City officials including Mayor Anthony Foxx before the Environmental Protection Agency.

City staff is currently working on the terms of a land swap with Forsite. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities plans to build its $197 million Long Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant on a corner of the proposed "green" industrial park site. And Mecklenburg County has been working out a trash pact that could turn local residential waste and yard clippings into fuel for ReVenture's proposed 49-megawatt, $300 million biomass power plant

Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble warned council that many pieces will need to fall into place for the project to work.

"ReVenture is an adventure," Kimble told council members during a dinner workshop before the meeting. "It's very, very complicated."

Kimble noted that the site isn't within city limits, so Charlotte won't reap any property tax revenue from ReVenture until the area is annexed.

Councilman Michael Barnes expressed concerns about the project's environmental credentials, noting that while "the g-word" has been very popular for the last few years, the designation is no guarantee of sustainability.

Shannon Binns, executive director of Sustain Charlotte, points out that the city had pledged its support of the project before environmental regulators have assessed the impact of a waste-to-energy plant. Forsite - a partnership between developer Tom McKittrick and The Springs Co. of Lancaster - is now three months late on self-imposed deadline to apply for an air quality permit. And it has yet to announce what company will develop, construct and/or operate the plant - or even what kind of biomass plant it will use as an anchor to ReVenture.

Binns, who has expressed his concerns publicly to both city council and the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners, warns that biomass power plants also pose a risk to the local air and water quality. And job creation.

"All types of incinerators require a large amount of capital investment, but they create relatively few jobs when compared to recycling and composting programs," Binns told city council members last night.

Binns adds that any incinerator proposal could undermine efforts locally when it comes to recycling programs.

Charlotte Business Journal

May 28, 2010 - Deal with developer may spur Charlotte treatment plant and eco business park
City considering land swap that would open tract for development

The developer of the proposed ReVenture Park is in talks to swap land with the city to support a 49-megawatt, $300 million bio-mass power plant fueled by residential garbage, sewer sludge and yard clippings.

The deal - presented to the city's economic-development committee on Tuesday - gives Charlotte Mecklenburg Utilities a section of the 667-acre property in northwest Mecklenburg County. The parcel would serve as the site for the future $197 million Long Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, the first to be built by the city in more than 30 years.

In exchange, Forsite Development Inc. gets the city's Statesville Avenue landfill, located southeast of the intersection of interstates 77 and 85. If the deal goes through, the city agrees to pick up the bill for the price differences between the two properties.

How much a chunk of ReVenture Park will cost the city remains to be determined. Forsite, a partnership between developer Tom McKittrick and The Springs Co. of Lancaster, envisions transforming the Superfund site owned by Clariant Corp. into a "green eco-park."

The negotiations have the city buying from Forsite the environmental permits for a private treatment plant that exists at the property. Those permits will give the utilities department regulatory permission for increased sewage capacity.

Utilities officials are hashing out a deal to treat wastewater from Mount Holly. That's expected to determine if the new plant's first phase will treat 8 million gallons per day or 12 million gallons per day. The utilities department has budgeted for 12 million gallons per day.

The land swap includes giving Charlotte Mecklenburg Utilities access through ReVenture Park to the property, which could help the city dodge costs on building a new access road and bridge to reach the site.

Then there's the issue of the property's contaminated groundwater. The utilities department would agree to treat the polluted water at the site if, in turn, Forsite bought that reclaimed water for power plant cooling, irrigation or other uses at ReVenture Park.

Forsite also wants the leftover treated sludge from Long Creek as a fuel source at the biomass plant. Talks are under way for all of the city's biosolids to be sent to ReVenture.

McKittrick says his company is considering newer technologies for the plant that could sharply reduce emissions from the energy-generation process. The plant could create a synthetic gas from the refuse and sludge to power a turbine, in a fashion similar to a natural-gas plant.

Or it may still opt for using an incineration process. Forsite originally planned to file for an air-quality permit in mid-March, but that has been delayed as the company finalizes what kind of waste-to-energy plant it will build.

McKittrick is negotiating with Duke Energy Carolinas on a power-purchase agreement. The Charlotte energy giant must fulfill state mandates to provide electricity from alternative sources, including biomass.

Under the land swap, the city would trade one of its albatross properties: The 155-acre Statesville Avenue landfill, which is zoned for industrial use but hasn't been used since it operated as an unregulated dump from 1940 to 1971.

In October 2008, St. Louis-based Environmental Liability Transfer Corp. pitched a deal to City Council to buy the property for $100,002 and turn it into warehouse and distribution complex.

But the dealbreaker came over an agreement that gave ELT all of the city's environmental liability.

City staffers have estimated the land would have an appraised value of $8.86 million if the property wasn't contaminated. Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble says the property is now valued at $50,000.

Forsite says it will indemnify the city from any claims regarding contamination at the Statesville Avenue site. McKittrick says the property would be an ideal transfer site for trash that will be converted into a fuel source for the biomass power plant.

Mecklenburg County has signed a nonbinding agreement to pay ReVenture Park up to $10 million per year for 20 years to take residential trash from all the county's municipalities, including Charlotte, starting July 1, 2012. The county currently uses the Speedway Landfill operated by Republic Services Inc. at a cost of $26 per ton to take the trash. Forsite has offered to charge $25 per ton.

Forsite is also asking the city for letters of support for the project. The developer will make a run for some Recovery Zone bond money - the kind of financing that was awarded for the recently announced Siemens Energy expansion in southwest Charlotte.

Local and state officials have been working to secure more than $131 million in Recovery Zone stimulus bonds for Siemens. The tax-exempt bond program was created through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Forsite wants the city's backing in its application.

Charlotte Business Journal

June 1, 2010 - Garbage Agreements for ReVenture

More pieces are falling into place for the developers of the ReVenture Park project, the potential home of a 49-megawatt, $300 million waste-to-energy plant.

The Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners will vote tonight on changes to its 10-year Solid Waste Management Plan. As dull as that sounds, the amendments affect the annual disposal of hundreds of thousands of tons of residential garbage from Charlotte, Cornelius, Davidson, Matthews, Mint Hill, Huntersville and Pineville. (All seven municiaplites - and the state's environmental regulators - will still need to sign off on the arrangement.)

Forsite Development Inc. wants the county's garbage and yard clippings as fuel for its biomass power plant. It already has a handshake deal for up to 400,000 tons per year for the next 20 years. The company would charge Mecklenburg $25 per ton. That could work out to be $10 million annually.

Right now, the county takes residential trash to the Speedway landfill at a price of $26 per ton in tipping fees. That contract ends June 30, 2012.

Tonight's vote won't prevent the county from negotiating a new deal with the Speedway if the plans for the 667-acre ReVenture Park fall apart. The county also has capacity at the Foxhole landfill.

Also in play: yard waste that now goes to the county's Compost Central facility where it gets made into mulch. Mecklenburg processes about 79,000 tons of tree leaves, limbs, and stumps, grass clippings and brush at a site leased from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. Most of that could be sent to ReVenture Park as early as July 2011.

And the county expects commercial yard waste will eventually be processed into fuel at ReVenture Park.

In the meantime, Forsite is working out a land swap with Charlotte officials so it can build a "fuel preparation facility" at the city's Statesville Avenue landfill. (A 2008 deal to sell the property to a St. Louis development company fizzled out over environmental liability concerns.)

County Commissioners meet at 6 p.m. at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Government Center. Take note: The waste agreements are slated for later in the evening.

Charlotte Business Journal

April 30, 2010 - Forsite Development weighs new technologies for ReVenture biomass facility
Shift in strategy could aid financing for proposed $300 million project

Forsite Development is reviewing proposals for building its 49-megawatt biomass plant using newer technologies that hold promise for reducing emissions from the combustion process the developer initially planned to use.

The latest proposals also would carry the benefit of teaming Forsite with companies that are willing to bring their own financing for the $300 million project, Forsite President Tom McKittrick says.

The review prompted Forsite to delay its plans to file for an air-quality permit last month. McKittrick says additional time is needed to determine whether to try the new technology, a process largely untested on a commercial scale.

He emphasizes ReVenture may stick with its original plan for high-efficiency burning of highly processed municipal waste.

The new proposals would use high temperatures in a low-oxygen environment to create a synthetic gas that would be used to power a turbine, as in a natural-gas plant.

"If it produces fewer emissions and has a more efficient burn, then it fits with what we are trying to do with ReVenture, which is to proceed in the best way for the environment that we can find," McKittrick says.

He expects to settle on a partner to develop and operate the plant within 60 days.

But nothing will happen until there is an agreement with a utility to buy the power the plant produces. McKittrick is talking to Duke Energy Carolinas about being that utility. Those talks have been going on for some time. McKittrick says he expects to make a formal proposal for a power purchase agreement with Duke in a couple of weeks.

Duke spokesman Jason Walls says talks continue. But he says it is impossible to tell how long it will take to make a decision since no proposal has been made.

Other parts of the project remain up in the air. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities continues to work on plans for a wastewater treatment plant, but no decisions have been made.

Department spokesman Vic Simpson says those efforts are not in any way stalled. But he notes permitting and building a wastewater plant takes a long time.

Also, Simpson says there are other factors to consider at ReVenture. The two sides have talked about the possibility of the city building and owning the plant or ReVenture owning the plant and selling the wastewater-treatment service to the city. And there have been conversations about whether ReVenture might use the reclaimed water, the organic solids or the methane gas produced by the process.

A proposed solar array at the site would, like the biomass plant, need a power-purchase agreement.

The biomass plant remains the centerpiece of the whole project. McKittrick insists his company's delay in applying for air permit does not reflect any stalling of the project. http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2010/05/03/story10.html

Charlotte Business Journal

April 30, 2010 - Mecklenburg County eyes waste pact with ReVenture

Mecklenburg County has agreed to pay ReVenture Park up to $10 million per year take residential trash from all the county's municipalities and burn it to produce electricity.

The proposed contract would end Mecklenburg's use of the Speedway Landfill operated by Republic Services Inc.

ReVenture would use the waste - processed for cleaner, more efficient burning - as fuel for the proposed 49-megawatt biomass plant at the heart of the ReVenture project.

The county's memorandum of understanding, signed April 11, is nonbinding, because agreements haven't yet been reached for building the biomass plant and selling the power it produces.

But if a final contract is signed, the county would get a slight break on the price. Republic charges Mecklenburg $26 per ton to take the trash. ReVenture, owned by Forsite Development Inc., will charge $25 per ton.

Bruce Gledhill, the county's solid-waste management director, says the ReVenture agreement is slated to start July 1, 2012, the day after the county's contract with Republic expires. Republic will continue to operate the private landfill at the Speedway site.

Mecklenburg's residential waste comprises less than one third of the 4,000 tons per day dumped at Speedway. But the county is the landfill's largest customer.

Mecklenburg landfills an average of 370,000 tons of residential garbage per year. The agreement calls for ReVenture to accept up to 400,000 tons per year for the next 20 years. The fee per ton of trash cannot go up more than 3% in a year, the agreement says.

The plan requires ReVenture hit certain milestones during the next two years. By the end of this year, for example, Forsite must submit all required permit applications for both the biomass plant and the facility that will process the raw trash into a shredded fuel. By March 31, it must obtain the permit for the processing site. ReVenture also must either start construction or must have an agreement to send the waste to another biomass facility.

April 23,2010 - Energy parks can remake old manufacturing sites

GASTON GAZETTE

'Green' project could bring jobs to Gaston

A proposed "eco-friendly" industrial park has a Charlotte address, but with a location on the Catawba River opposite downtown Mount Holly, the benefits of a $922 million investment and about 1,900 jobs could also flow through Gaston County.

As proposed, the ReVenture Park would include a broad mix of green technology and alternative energy projects - including a biomass power plant and a solar farm - developed to standards that would better protect the region's primary source of drinking water. And the city of Mount Holly is also considering a partnership with Charlotte's municipal utilities to develop a $197 million wastewater treatment plant on the site, which could incorporate green design and a process to transform biosolids into renewable energy.

All of that synergy in one location could make the ReVenture Park and the surrounding area a center for emerging energy and technology markets, said Donny Hicks, executive director of the Gaston County Economic Development Commission.

"You've got to hope that there will be some spin off (in Gaston County) either employment or related companies that need to be near" the ReVenture Park, Hicks said.

Gaston County is already competing for some complimentary projects. Hicks said the Gastonia Technology Park was recently one of three finalists nationwide for a $100 million investment from a green technology company.

Redevelopment plans

At the ReVenture Park, Charlotte-based Forsite Development Inc. has outlined plans for a 49-megawatt biomass power plant, a 4-megawatt solar farm built on top of a closed gypsum landfill, a bio-fuels production facility, a transloading and ethanol mixing operation, a wastewater treatment plant and a facility that converts fleet vehicles to run on propane.

The master plan also includes a business park for "green" companies or non-profits, office space and a partnership with UNC Charlotte to develop a green technology research lab and business incubator. The developer estimates that the ReVenture Park on 667 acres off of N.C. 27 would create about 1,100 jobs and 800 temporary construction jobs with potential opportunities for the 13,000-plus workers currently unemployed in Gaston County.

Forsite Development Inc., which specializes in industrial redevelopment projects, has also completed two projects in Gastonia - redevelopment of the 165,000-square-foot CRS facility on Isley Drive and the 44,000-square-foot Norcap facility on Plastics Drive.

"We're not developers. We're redevelopers," McKittrick said.

Contaminated site

The ReVenture location is a former chemical manufacturing facility owned by Clariant Corp. Because of prior contamination on the site, it is currently designated as a "Superfund" clean up site by the Environmental Protection Agency. Forsite has applied to have the property transitioned to a "Brownfield," which would allow redevelopment and reuse of the site.

McKittrick said Forsite would continue to pump and treat ground water at the site. The company has proposed clean up measures beyond what is currently required, he said.

Plans also include a 40-acre park along the river and a 100-acre conservation easement and trail system along the Long Creek basin connecting the Carolina Thread Trail to the U.S. National Whitewater Center.

"Environmental sensitivity is a core facet of the project," McKittrick said. "Everything that we're proposing on the property is something that promotes a clean energy economy while protecting the environment."

River District certification

The ReVenture Park is the first development along the river to volunteer for designation in the Catawba River District, which requires strict development standards to protect the watershed.

Catawba River Keeper David Merryman, who is also a board member with the Catawba River District, said he hasn't seen all of the details yet, but the project "presents itself as a very responsible use of an old abandoned industrial site."

"Any projects that go in there, I want to make sure they don't impact the quality of those waters," he said.

The proposed biomass power plant and wastewater treatment plant would require discharge permits from state and federal agencies.
Mount Holly's wastewater treatment plants are nearing capacity. City leaders are still weighing options, including the proposed facility in the ReVenture Park, said assistant city manager Danny Jackson. The city could also direct some of its solid waste stream to the park for use in the biomass power plant, Jackson said, but that hasn't been decided either.

Biomass power

Development of the proposed $300 million biomass power plant could begin this year in an effort to capture $60 million in federal tax credits. The biomass plant would burn wood, yard waste and garbage to turn steam turbines and generate electricity - enough to power about 50,000 homes, McKittrick said. That electricity could be sold to Duke Energy or provided to ReVenture tenants.

In addition to producing energy from materials that would otherwise rot in a landfill, McKittrick said the biomass plant would have the "highest emission control standards available in the industry."

Meanwhile, developers are working with CoaLogix Inc., which already has a plant on the ReVenture site. Founded in late 2007, CoaLogix provides technology to maximize the removal of nitrogen oxide from power plant emissions. McKittrick said he'd like to see CoaLogix expand on the site. And if all goes as planned, several other innovative start-up companies will sprout up around CoaLogix, he said.
"That's our hope - to create more CoaLogix-type companies," McKittrick said. "The site has extensive infrastructure in place, making it perfectly suited for green energy and alternative fuels projects."

You can reach Business Editor Daniel Jackson at 704-869-1833.

The Montcross Area Chamber of Commerce will host a community forum and lunch to discuss the proposed ReVenture Park and the Catawba River District March 25 at the East Campus of Gaston College in Belmont. Networking and a box lunch begin at 11:30 a.m. and the program starts at noon. Speakers will include Catawba River District President Bill Daleure, of Crosland LLC, and District Executive Committee members Rusty Rozzelle of Mecklenburg County Land Use and Environmental Services, and Edna Chirico of Chirico Huber Properties.

The cost is $10 payable at the door. Registration is required online at www.MontcrossAreaChamber.com (Event Registration). For more information, call the Montcross Area Chamber at 704-825-5307.

http://www.gastongazette.com/news/proposed-44804-bring-gaston.html

CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL

ReVenture may land $197 million wastewater plant

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities targets site in proposed business park

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities is pushing a deal with Mount Holly for a new treatment plant - the first to be built by the city in more than 30 years - that could help anchor a renewable-energy business park.

If approved, the water and sewer department would design, build and own the estimated $197 million plant at Long Creek that would be at the south end of the proposed ReVenture "eco-park."

The property is just north of the U.S. National Whitewater Center, at a contaminated Superfund site owned by Clariant Corp.

"This is probably Charlotte's last opportunity for a treatment plant at this location," interim utilities director Barry Gullet says, adding that the city has looked at the site for four decades. He says the plant can be built with odor controls, similar to devices that have been retrofitted to the city's older sewage treatment facilities.

Utilities officials are negotiating terms of the deal. Mount Holly would send its sewage to Charlotte by way of a pipe that would be built through bedrock underneath the Catawba River. The town would pay for the pipe, the cost of sewage treatment and capital expenses for future expansion.

At first, the plant would have enough capacity to process 6 million gallons of sewage per day for Charlotte and 6 million gallons per day for Mount Holly.

Both the utilities department and Mount Holly need the plant to accommodate growth. In February, Charlotte's McAlpine plant hit 94% of its treatment capacity.

Sewage from the northwest section of the city is collected and pumped by way of a 27-mile network of pipes and pump stations to the McAlpine wastewater treatment plant near the state line.

The Charlotte water and sewer department is looking to aggressively expedite construction of the new plant, with a target completion date of 2013.

But the facility isn't included in the department's current budget. If it is made a priority, it may bump back or replace other long-term projects in the works: $40 million in renovations of the Irwin Creek wastewater treatment plant, a $123 million expansion of the Sugar Creek wastewater treatment plant and $32 million in renovations to the McAlpine plant.

Sewer rates would have to be raised to pay for the capital expense, but how much is not clear at this point.

If plans for the Long Creek plant move forward, that would give the developers of ReVenture a second anchor to their industrial park. The developers want to sell the land - at an undisclosed price - or privately develop a treatment plant.

"Everything is on the table to be discussed," utilities spokesman Vic Simpson says. "But we have to be mindful of our obligations to wastewater customers."

Meanwhile, ReVenture developer Tom McKittrick says his team is close to delisting the 667-acre property as a federal Superfund site and enrolling the property in the state's brownfield program. Forsite Development Inc. - a partnership between McKittrick and The Springs Co. of Lancaster - says it close to securing as many as 15 companies and developments for the park.

"We are trying to create an energy hub," McKittrick says.

The main anchor would be a $300 million, 49-megawatt biomass power plant that would generate energy by incinerating trash, wood and sewage sludge.

"This is not an incinerator," McKittrick stressed in a presentation to City Council on Monday. "This is designed to create energy."
Forsite hopes it can get that sludge for its proposed power plant. The company also is eyeing Mecklenburg County's solid waste as a fuel source.

Other components to the park include:

Forsite says it should have agreements for $70 million to $90 million in equity funding for its proposed biomass power plant along the Catawba River by late May.

The developers hope to obtain permits quickly so they can start construction of the plant before year end. That would qualify the plant for up to $40 million in tax credits.

Forsite also must secure an air-quality permit from Mecklenburg County by early December to make that goal.
And then there's the rest of the money required to make the renewable-energy park a reality. As planned, ReVenture's total investment could top $922 million and bring 1,034 permanent jobs. About 800 temporary construction jobs could be created to build out the park.
Those are rough numbers. For example, Forsite's figures for the wastewater treatment plant pegs the facility at $250 million, while the utilities department is estimating the project at $197 million.

/charlotte/stories/2010/03/08/story11.html?b=1268024400%5E2982191

CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL

Forsite Development says it's near funding deal for ReVenture launch

Developer expects to secure up to $90 million for biomass plant by May

Forsite Development Inc. expects to have agreements for $70 million to $90 million in equity funding for its proposed biomass power plant along the Catawba River by late May.

The project - estimated at $200 million for its first phase - will anchor the ReVenture Park energy project on the old Clariant industrial site in northwest Charlotte. In the meantime, Forsite President Tom McKittrick, says the company is looking for additional industrial sites in North Carolina to convert into similar energy parks.

It makes good business sense, he says.

"You have a ready supply of existing sites," he says. "And the clean energy economy is not a fad. This is one area of the economy where money is available for development."

It is that money - private investment, venture capital, bank loans and, of course, government stimulus funds - that makes McKittrick confident in the ReVenture project. And he sees it as fitting in perfectly with the efforts to make the Charlotte region a hub for energy research and manufacturing.

McKittrick says negotiations for an investment partner for the biomass plant are going well. The list has been narrowed to no more than four. Some are simply investment firms, but at least one is an engineering and construction firm that has and investment arm. In any event, he says, he expects to have the principal contractor chosen by this summer.

The partner would put up 35% to 45% of the first phase costs. The rest will be financed with traditional debt.
He says the overall park as now projected could total $922 million in investment and create 1,034 permanent jobs. That does not include the 800 construction jobs that would be created for the actual construction of the various projects in the 667-acre park.

To reach that level of investment, the park would need other companies and government agencies to take on targeted projects. They would include a $250 million wastewater treatment plant, a large-scale energy manufacturer and a biofuels company.

He has also had discussions with UNC Charlotte about a renewable energy research center on the site. And there have been "substantial conversations" about a sustainable business incubator modeled on the Ben Craig Center.

"We are very interested," says Paul Wetenhall, Ben Craig Center president. He has had discussions with McKittrick and Edna Chirico, managing member of Chirico Hubert Properties , who is handling real estate work at the site.

Wetenhall is getting a feasibility study on the proposal. He says the center must establish demand for the service.
Forsite, for now, has few commitments in hand. Even Coalogix Inc. , which already has a facility on the site, has not made a final decision on whether it will stay in the park.

McKittrick says the biomass plant is at the heart of the project. "That's been the focus of about 85% of our effort so far, and it will remain that way for some time," he says. He expects visible signs of progress soon.

Forsite is proposing to sell Duke Energy Carolinas the power produced by the 50-megawatt plant when it's completed in 2013. That will be a vital step. Financing and construction of renewable-energy projects isn't likely without a firm power purchase agreement in place.
McKittrick says he hopes to have an answer from Duke within a few weeks. Duke spokesman Dave Scanzoni confirms Duke has been talking to Forsite, and that it is waiting for a formal proposal. "We will take the time necessary to adequately assess the proposal, like we do with any renewable project," he says.

McKittrick hopes to start construction on the plant before year end. That would qualify the plant for up to $40 million in tax credits. But Forsite will have to secure an air-quality permit by early December to make that goal (click here for related story) .

McKittrick says the financing agreements for the plant do not presume that it will start in time to qualify for the tax credits. That way, he says, the project will go ahead regardless of whether it can start by year end.

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2010/02/15/story10.html

CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL

ReVenture energy park could mean 1,000+ jobs

Forsite Development Inc. hopes to get started on a $300 million biomass plant at its proposed ReVenture Park by year end to qualify for $60 million in federal tax credits.

Forsite President Tom McKittrick said in a recent interview it will be a "mad dash to the finish line" to get started by then. "We think it's doable, but we have significant miles to go."

McKittrick made a presentation to county officials on progress at the renewable energy park Tuesday afternoon. He says the park as now projected would involve $922 million in investment and create 1,034 permanent jobs. That does not include the 800 construction jobs that would be created for the actual development of the various projects in the 667-acre park.

To reach that level of investment, the park would need other companies and government agencies to come in and develop targeted projects. They would include a $250 million wastewater treatment plant, a large-scale energy manufacturer and a biofeuls company.
It is part of his effort to drum up support with local officials even as his group lobbies the state's Congressional delegation for federal support.

The county pays a tipping fee of $26 per ton and transports 370,000 tons annually to the Speedway landfill. Much of that garbage could be the fuel for the biomass plant.

Assistant County Manager Bobbie Shields warned that working out such an agreement could be tricky. The county has contracts with seven municipalities for waste disposal, and it could take years to unwind all those contracts to make a deal for burning the waste for power.
The first phase of the biomass plant will have a capacity of 50 megawatts - or about enough power to provide electricity to about 35,000 homes. The first phase will cost $200 million.

There are also plans for a 4-megawatt solar farm on the site to provide power for park tenants. And McKittrick has proposed a 100-acre environmental easement on the site that would create a greenway linking it to the U.S. Whitewater Center and the Carolina Thread Trail.
Forsite is negotiating with a company that converts automobile engines to using natural gas and another that would develop biofuels as potential park tenants.

Forsite is still negotiating with Coalogix Inc. , which reprocesses chemical catalysts used to remove nitrogen oxides from power-plant emissions, about expanding a plant Coalogix already has on the site.

There are several efforts under way for developing the site, McKittrick says. The move to have the property delisted as an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site is going well. The company is negotiating a possible power-purchase agreement to sell the electricity produced by the biomass plant. And it is talking to potential investors about becoming equity partners in that project.

McKittrick says the company plans to apply for the Air Quality permit for the plant by March. That could be the single biggest issue the company faces in getting construction started before the end of the year, he said in a recent interview.

But Forsite has built its economic models for the project presuming it will not get the federal tax breaks. So if the project cannot start before year end, that should not present a financial problem for going ahead with the plant.

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2010/02/08/daily16.html

January 29, 2010
Carolina Weekly

ReVenture applies for river district certification

The proposed green industrial park in the west Mountain Island area has become the first property to apply for Catawba River District certification.

ReVenture Park aims to take over roughly 700 acres currently owned by dye-maker Clariant and develop the land into a green-focused industrial park featuring a 50-megawatt biomass plant, a biodiesel production company and a 4-megawatt solar-power farm.
Tom McKittrick, president of Forsite Development, announced the news of being the first application in the river district during a community meeting Wednesday, Jan. 27.

The river district, a 15,000-acre area straddling the Gaston-Mecklenburg county line, focuses on sustainable development, healthy living and the river's health. Properties in that area must meet higher standards for controlling stormwater runoff, conserving water and incorporating "green" building practices to achieve river district certification.

"Every politician that I've ever met in the metro area has talked about Charlotte becoming a renewable energy capital," McKittrick said.
"This, in my opinion, is a clear example of the private sector stepping up and doing something to establish Charlotte as a renewable energy hub."

A green industrial park applying for the first river district application will help move the district forward in a big way, Edna Chirico, a Catawba River District board member, said.

"It's an incredible kick-start for the Catawba River District," Chirico said. "For ReVenture to be able to establish an employment base that could reach 1,000 employees in green jobs becomes a catalyst and a real element of sustainability for the northwest Mecklenburg area."
ReVenture plans to create renewable energy through the biomass plant, biodiesel refinery and solar-power farm. The biomass plant will produce up to 50 megawatts by burning biodegradable materials such as wood pallets, paper and plants. The power created will be used by other industries in the park, which include a new regional wastewater treatment plant being built by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities and possibly a company that converts fleet vehicles to hybrids. The sludge produced by the wastewater plant can, in turn, serve as fuel for the biomass plant.

ReVenture, however, will not be able to sell electricity directly to businesses at the industrial park. Duke Energy would have to buy the power first and then sell it back to businesses at ReVenture.

Forsite expects to begin construction on the biomass plant in 2011. The vehicle conversion operation, solar farm and biodiesel refinery could start in the last quarter of this year.

Federal stimulus tax credits could offset the development company's $922 million investment, returning up to 30 percent of the project costs to the company.

Forsite, however, has two hurdles to overcome before it can begin fully developing the property. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must remove the property from the Superfund list, a program established to address abandoned hazardous waste sites.
Pollution at the site dates from the late 1930s when the DyeStuff Company produced liquid sulfur dyes to the late 1970s when Martin Marietta, which had purchased the plant, produced dyes and specialty chemical products.

The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources also must accept the property into its Brownfield Program, which limits the developer's liability on environmental cleanup.

Brownfield developments also are eligible for tax incentives, including a 5-year phase-in of property taxes on improvements made to the site.

http://www.carolinaweeklynewspapers.com/story/20100129/reventure-applies-river-district-certification