OREANDA-NEWS. July 06, 2011. ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced equity participation in Gainesville Renewable Energy Center, a 100MW biomass power project located in Gainesville, Florida (“Project”), through indirect affiliates.

The Project was jointly developed by BayCorp Holdings, Ltd. (“Bay Corp”), Energy Management Inc. (“EMI”), and Tyr Energy Inc. (“Tyr Energy”, a wholly-owned Independent Power Producer (“IPP”) company of ITOCHU Corporation), and is the second 100MW class biomass power project developed by the group. The Project is one of the largest biomass fueled electric generating facilities in the United States, with an emission control system designed to meet or exceed all U.S. and Florida requirements.

Tyr Energy has contributed equity to the Project together with BayCorp, EMI and Fagen Inc. The group of commercial banks, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ as Coordinating Lead Arranger, Natixis, Rabobank Nederland, ING Capital, Credit Agricole, and Societe Generale (6 Banks), provided the debt for the construction of the Project. Total project cost is approximately USD 500 million.

Following financial closing, the project will move forward to the construction phase and is expected to begin commercial operation in 2013. After commencement of commercial operation, the project will deliver electricity to Gainesville Regional Utilities, the city-owned utility in Gainesville, Florida, under a 30 year long term power purchase agreement. NAES Corporation, the largest independent Operation & Maintenance provider, which operates the largest fleet of biomass facilities in US, will provide Operation & Maintenance service to the project.

ITOCHU has defined the IPP business as a priority area in its medium-term management plan Brand-New-Deal 2012, to generate sustained earnings over the long term. ITOCHU, through Tyr Energy, is actively working to add to its portfolio of IPP assets in both greenfield development and operating power plants.