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Elementa could soon be back in a big way. by Bob Mihell

SooTody.com welcomes our newest writer to our growing family of professionals dedicated to bringing you all the news you need to know today and every day.

SooTody.com welcomes our newest writer to our growing family of professionals dedicated to bringing you all the news you need to know today and every day. 

We look forward to bringing you, our loyal readers, hard-hitting, in-depth news stories and more from Bob Mihell. 

Mihell has distinguished himself in the Sault and area as a reporter who is not afraid to ask tough questions and who will be fair, truthful and bring you the whole story. 

His first offering on SooToday.com, an in-depth look at the local status of green energy pioneering firm Elementa, follows.

Welcome aboard, Bob!

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It’s not official, but the Ontario Power Authority and Elementa Inc., the energy from waste company that plans to launch its first commercial plant in the Sault using new technology, are close to a power purchase agreement. 

The OPA and the high tech company have been negotiating for over two years since the Ministry of Energy gave permission for separate contracts with waste to energy producers outside the Province’s Green Energy Act, 2009. 
 
John Cannella, media relations specialist with the OPA, said Thursday (Nov. 28) the two sides were “working towards finalizing the agreement”. He stressed, however, that “the contract has not yet been executed”.
 
Sault MPP and Minister of Natural Resources, David Orazietti, said that some details of the agreement needed to be completed, but that he was optimistic of a successful outcome.
 
Jayson Zwierschke, president and CEO of Elementa, said Thursday from company headquarters in Niagara-on-the-Lake that any announcement would come from the government. “What I can tell you is we are very pleased with the progress,” he said. “We are working very closely with David Orazietti’s office, and we hope that there will be a conclusion in the near future.”
Zwierschke had high praise for Orazietti’s efforts behind the scenes. “Nobody has done more for Elementa than David Orazietti.”
 
He praised also City Staff, Council and the Mayor for their continued support over what he described as “a long time” to get to the present position.
 
If Elementa gets the go ahead from the Province, the commercial plant would be built on 15.30 acres of industrial zoned land on the Base Line near the Leigh’s Bay Rd. intersection. 
 
Elementa signed an agreement this summer to buy the property from the City for just over $232,000 conditional on government approval by Jan. 6, 2014.
 
Zwierschke said the price tag for the project would be between $52 and $54 million, up from earlier estimates of $30 million.
 
“We’re in a strong financial position right now, and we’re ready to go very soon,” he said. “We have some partners who are ready to announce their participation at the site, and it’s going to bring a lot of interest, money, and employment opportunities to the city.”
 
While Zwierschke did not share the names of those potential partners, the company partnered in 2013 with Battelle, the world’s largest nonprofit research and development organization, to win “a prestigious U.S. Energy Industry Technology Award”, for its patented steam reformation process, according to a media release on Elementa’s website. 
 
Battelle is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, and has 22,000 employees in 130 countries globally. 
 
The two companies shared the award in November for delivering Elementa’s innovative energy technology to the U.S. Dept. of Defense marketplace, the company release goes on to say.
 
Zwierschke said that when the plant becomes fully operational it would be able to handle almost all the City’s municipal waste material, and convert that into about 10 megawatts of clean energy for the electrical grid.
 
“The Sault will be the host city for the first facility of this type in the world,” he said. “They are going to be able to claim that all their municipal waste goes to a non-combustion state of the art technology that reduces their climate change impact, which is a big deal for municipalities.”
 
Zwierschke also predicted that the new plant would generate substantial economic benefits for the community, including construction jobs, and high paying permanent employment opportunities once operational.
 
The City’s support for the waste to energy project began in 2008 when it signed a contract with the company, then known as EnQuest, to operate a pilot project at its Fifth Line landfill site capable of processing one tonne of solid garbage per day. 
 
The six-month agreement required Elementa to provide evidence to the City and the Ministry of Environment that the technology worked and was in compliance with provincial air emission standards.
 
Zwierschke had said in Nov. 2008 the data collected demonstrated that the air emission tests were well within the A-7 guidelines enforced by the MOE. 
 
The City also approved a waste supply contract with Elementa in late Oct. 2009, that was revised in July 2013.
 
The revised contract amended the date for the waste to energy process to start from April 1, 2011 to Jan. 1, 2016. 
Also under the agreement terms, the construction of the new plant must begin by Sept. 1, 2014, and be finished by Jan. 1, 2016.
 
The City will pay a tipping fee of $60 per tonne for municipal waste delivered to Elementa, to be adjusted annually according to the Consumer Price Index during the ten-year renewal agreement.
 
For any waste material diverted back to the landfill by Elementa, the company would pay the City the current rate per tonne- for example, $70 per tonne this July- and 50 per cent of that fee for non-hazardous residue produced during the non-combustion steam reformation process.
 
To qualify under the new rules for an OPA power purchase agreement Elementa must have written approval that it has satisfied MOE air emission standards during the pilot project; it must have all required licenses to operate a waste handling and electricity generating facility; and it must demonstrate it can connect to the electricity grid without additional costs to the system.
 
OPA was given the flexibility to set an electricity purchase price that balances the needs of the company at a reasonable cost to consumers.
 
Meanwhile Catherine Taddo, land development and environmental engineer for the City, said that a detailed environmental assessment looking at possible expansion of the existing landfill site is underway.
 
She said that the City’s landfill received about 70,496 tonnes of waste material in 2012. Of that amount, 83 per cent (58,393 tonnes) was landfilled; four per cent was exported for recycling or reuse, including metal, wood, batteries, and tires; and 13 per cent was used as daily cover.
 
Taddo said the 2012 report indicates that based on a five-year average of 60,308 tonnes of waste material annually, the existing landfill site has capacity for 8.1 more years.
 
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Earlier SooToday.com coverage of this story
 

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