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Spring start for Plasco?

Financing is almost in place to make way for a spring start on a $100-million waste-to-energy plant in Red Deer County, Plasco Energy Group president and CEO Rod Bryden said on Tuesday.
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Rod Bryden

Financing is almost in place to make way for a spring start on a $100-million waste-to-energy plant in Red Deer County, Plasco Energy Group president and CEO Rod Bryden said on Tuesday.

Bryden, a well-known Ottawa businessman and former Ottawa Senators owner, is aiming to secure as much as $95 million in federal loans and grants that will be used to bankroll the 200-tonne-a-day gasification plant at the county’s Horn Hill Waste Treatment site east of Penhold.

Construction could start this spring and the plant would be completed 18 months later, and running at full capacity six months later, he said after a closed-door meeting with Red Deer County council.

The plant will be built from modules constructed at an Ontario plant. Plasco has a demonstration gasification plant in Ottawa and plans to build a full-scale facility there.

Company officials had predicted earlier that construction would start last summer.

But the financial market turmoil of the last two years saw investment capital sources dry up and energy prices tanked, forcing the Ottawa-based company to look at other options.

“We all got slammed by an economy that we couldn’t predict,” said Chris Gay, Plasco executive vice-president.

“So that has caused us to have some delays, but now we’re good to go.”

Moves by the federal government to pump more cash into the Green Infrastructure Fund and free up Export Development Canada to invest within the country allowed Plasco to find the money it needed to keep the project on track.

Export Development Canada is expected to provide around $60 million in debt financing through a secured loan.

The Green Infrastructure Fund would be tapped for about $25 million to $35 million.

“There are still some important details to finalize,” Bryden said. “But we’re confident we’ll be ready to proceed before the end of March.”

Central Waste Management Commission, whose nine member municipalities have agreed to deliver trash to the gasification plant, has agreed to extend its agreement with Plasco until the end of March. The agreement was to expire at the end of December.

Red Deer County Mayor Earl Kinsella said after Tuesday’s meeting that he is “a lot more optimistic now that we will come to some sort of successful arrangement to see this project move ahead.”

“What’s coming from the federal (government) is a lot more positive than it ever has been before.”

pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com