Original story provided by Dave Helwig at Sootoday.com.
Elementa Group Inc. has closed a land deal with the City of Sault Ste. Marie, acquiring 15 acres of property to build its long-awaited energy-from-waste commercial plant.
The deal closed in early October, said Jayson Zwierschke, Elementa’s president and chief executive officer.
The location of the Base Line Road property in the west end of the city is immediately adjacent to Flakeboard’s melamine lamination plant and is serviced by a cul-de-sac.
Elementa’s purchase of the site follows a private luncheon meeting involving company officials, Sault Mayor Debbie Amaroso, Ward 1 Councillor Steve Butland, Sault MPP David Orazietti and representatives of a potential investor.
Because of ongoing negotiations, Zwierschke declined to name the investor, but participants say it’s a household name with a key interest in vehicles.
“I haven’t been this excited about Elementa in a long time,” Zwierschke said.
Over the next few weeks, the company is planning to make announcements about technology tweaks to the process it will use at the full-scale plant, as well as announce new partners.
One of the announcements will be a “game-changer,” Zwierschke said.
Elementa has not yet received a needed environmental compliance approval from the Ontario government but environmental screening has been completed, he said.
Since first introducing its idea to the Sault in 2006, the company has received a number of extensions on its 10-year agreement with the city, which allows it to use waste diverted from the city’s landfill to fuel the plant.
Under the terms of a revised agreement, approved earlier this year, Elementa must begin construction of the $31-million plant by March 1, 2015.
“We are on track to meet this target,” Zwierschke said. “Elementa is still 100 per cent focussed on Sault Ste. Marie’s development….Sault Ste. Marie is our first and foremost active location.”
Construction of the full-scale commercial demonstration plant is expected to take about 18 months, Zwierschke said.
It will convert 35,000 tonnes a year of municipal solid waste into approximately six megawatts of electricity, enough to power 5,000 households and reduce local greenhouse gas production by about 24,000 tonnes.
Elementa continues to work with Battelle, the world’s largest non-profit research and development organization.
