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Ameresco gets record $795M DOE biomass energy contract |
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The
largest independent energy services provider in the U.S., Ameresco, Inc.,
based in Framingham, Massachusetts, has been awarded a $795 million
contract by the Department of Energy (DOE) to build a biomass
cogeneration facility and two smaller biomass heating facilities at the
DOE’s Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina.
The
project is the largest energy savings performance and renewable energy
contract in the nation’s history. Ameresco will finance, design,
construct, operate, maintain and fuel the new biomass facilities for
the DOE.
Under the contract, the DOE will not have to provide
any up-front money to fund the energy efficiency and renewable energy
project. Ameresco will be reimbursed from the guaranteed energy and
operational cost savings generated by the project over the span of the
contract.
The project will be primarily fueled with forestry
residues that are currently left in the forest to rot when the timber
is harvested.
George Sakellaris, Ameresco President and CEO,
said that in the first-year alone the energy and operational cost
savings of the project will be in excess of $34 million and site’s
greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by over 100,000 tons.
The
project will create approximately 800 direct construction related jobs
during its implementation and result in 125 permanent jobs.
From
an environmental perspective, the reductions in harmful emissions when the facility is completed will include an
annual reduction of 400 tons of per year of particulate matter, 3,500
tons of sulfur dioxide emissions, and 100,000 tons of carbon emissions.
It will also reduce annual water consumption by 1.4 billion gallons and
eliminate the burning of coal by 161,000 tons per year.
www.ameresco.com
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