Taylor English Facilitates $17 Million Grant for Manufacturer’s Biomass Energy Project

Taylor English Duma LLP attorney Greg Sanderson recently advised a Washington state-based manufacturer in successfully obtaining a Treasury §1603 cash grant in excess of $17 million for a 55 megawatt biomass power plant.

The client manufactures bleached and unbleached kraft pulp and linerboard at its mill in the Tacoma, Washington area. The mill employs some of the most advanced paper recycling techniques available, and recycles some 500 tons of waste paper and boxes every day, turning it into high-quality packaging paper while improving the environment. The new power plant is fueled with biomass residues from mill operations and other regional sources. The plant co-generates green power that is sold into the public electrical power grid and steam that is used for paper manufacturing.

For the last two years, Sanderson has worked to obtain incentives for this biomass power project. The grant will cover 30 percent of the cost of the project. “Biomass” is any organic material obtained from terrestrial and aquatic crops, including wood and paper residue. The biomass material is a renewable fuel used by the power plant as an alternative to coal or petroleum products.

“The 2009 Recovery Act has made billions available to companies trying to build renewable energy facilities,” Sanderson says. “The policy is to promote domestic and renewable sources of energy.”

Sanderson is a member of the Taylor English Duma LLP renewable energy team. Taylor English lawyers represent renewable energy developers and investors to help them qualify for tax incentives and obtain project financing in debt and capital markets. Sanderson has been involved in more than 100 similar tax credit transactions supporting renewable energy. He has also served as a co-owner and financial officer of Power Management, Inc. and of W-T-E Development, LLC, private alternative energy firms that developed and financed over 30 energy projects in 14 states from 1995 to 2004.

“It is great to be able to complete a project like this and see it work,” Sanderson says. “It is rewarding because we are helping to produce electricity from renewable resources. Renewable biomass energy is produced locally, carbon neutral, and environmentally friendly. Our nation needs to develop more renewable sources to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and imported oil.”