Pacific BioEnergy And GDF SUEZ Announce Strategic Partnership
Vancouver, BC -(Marketwire) - Pacific BioEnergy Corporation and GDF SUEZ today announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership to support a $24 million expansion of Pacific BioEnergy's existing wood pellet production facilities in Prince George, BC (the "PG Plant"). Pacific BioEnergy and global energy production leader GDF SUEZ have formed a new joint venture to own and operate the PG Plant.
In addition to its minority interest in the joint venture, GDF SUEZ has also agreed to purchase 2.5 million tonnes of carbon-neutral wood pellets for its electrical generating facilities in Belgium over the next 10 years, replacing approximately two million tonnes of coal and reducing net CO2 emissions by over 4 million tonnes.
The expansion project, expected to be complete in the fall of 2010, will see annual wood pellet production at the PG Plant double to 350,000 tonnes. New state-of-the-art emission control equipment will be installed, improving the air quality in and around Prince George. The expanded PG Plant will also utilize more mountain pine beetle killed wood and other waste wood from the forests surrounding Prince George. Left to decompose, or burned as slash, this biomass creates carbon dioxide and methane, a greenhouse gas that can trap 20 times more heat than carbon dioxide.
In making the announcement, Pacific BioEnergy Chairman and CEO, Don Steele stated "This new partnership with GDF SUEZ will provide significant benefits to Prince George and help strengthen British Columbia as a global leader in biomass energy with one of Europe's leading green energy practioners. The leadership of Premier Gordon Campbell and government in supporting growth and development of BC's bioenergy sector has laid a foundation upon which to build projects like the expansion at our Prince George facility."
Dirk Beeuwsaert, Executive Vice President GDF SUEZ, in charge of Energy Europe & International stated "GDF SUEZ is very pleased to enter into this new partnership with Pacific BioEnergy Corporation. Our use of carbon-neutral wood pellets from British Columbia allows us to lower our CO2 emissions at our electrical generating plants, and to achieve the goals concerning renewable energy set out by the European Union. This new partnership assures that we will receive significant quantities of carbon-neutral wood pellets during the next decade and will support our position as a world leader in large scale biomass generation."
SOURCE: Pacific BioEnergy Corporation