Administered by the USDA’s Rural Development Office, this current $1.05 billion initiative funded through the Inflation Reduction Act seeks to issue grants which spur economic development and catalyze rural prosperity by throughout the United States through six quarterly competitions. VRG was selected to receive $1 million towards completion of VRG’s Vermont Renewable Gas – Lyndon (VRG – Lyndon) 2.2-megawatt renewable energy facility in Lyndon, Vermont.
Regarding the most recently announced REAP Grant recipients, Deputy U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Xochitl Torres Small stated that “REAP loans and grants will lower energy costs for farmers and small businesses and help expand their operations, all while tackling climate change.”
The USDA announcement emphasized the impact that these chosen projects will have in helping farmers and rural small businesses increase their income, grow their businesses, and address climate change while lowering energy costs for American families. VRG – Lyndon will likely be included in a future grant recipient announcement by USDA.
Centered around CETY’s HTAP Biomass Reactor technology, CETY will design, build, and operate the VRG – Lyndon facility. VRG will convert waste biomass from Northeastern Vermont’s working lands into renewable fuel gas and BioChar fertilizer. The renewable fuel gas generated will be converted into renewable electricity and heat. The plant is expected to deliver in excess of 18,000 MWh of renewable electricity and 1,500 tons of BioChar annually and be fully commissioned within 12 months.
CETY is focusing on HTAP applications for agricultural waste, forestry waste, industrial and municipal solid waste, and landfill waste. This builds on the current increase in state and federal incentives for investment in clean energy solutions for commercial and industrial users, as well as a surge in interest in clean energy solutions in municipalities.
In combination with other CETY technologies and solutions, these projects will advance the company’s mission to offer a more vertically integrated and scalable platform for clean energy solutions across multiple industries in most key markets globally.
CETY’s existing organic rankine cycle (ORC) business will also capitalize on each biomass project, with the opportunity to deliver Heat Recovery Solutions. Such synergies increase energy value by 15% for the Biomass project. CETY’s portfolio of biomass projects will in turn drive top line and bottom-line growth elsewhere in the company creating long term predictable income streams with high IRR cash flows.
“VRG will serve as a model for developing new projects that capture market share in this highly profitable and growing industry. By vertically integrating biomass into our business, we are also able to grow our heat recovery business horizontally. We hope that our future projects will be large by orders of magnitude and have a profound impact on the environment while bringing CETY new sources of income. Our new renewable biomass energy projects are expected to further expand our goal of becoming a complete solution for industrial and municipal scale projects in the strategic markets we are targeting,” said Kam Mahdi, CEO of CETY.
