Good afternoon.
My name is Lewis Staats. I'm the president of Renewable Energy Management. I'd like to thank you for having me speak to the hearing today.
I'll give you an overview of the company.
At Renewable Energy Management, we are project development company. We control the Canadian and U.S.A. licence for Entech Renewable Energy Solutions, which is a low-temperature gasification process.
Entech-REM is a joint venture between our two companies, REM and Entech. Entech-REM is the legal entity that is pursuing a proposed project right now in Port Hope, Ontario, and will also be the entity that would pursue other energy-from-waste projects in our licensed areas of Canada and the United States.
As a project development company, REM does partner and will be partnering with organizations and companies that have industry experience in energy from waste, like an EPC organization, to engineer, procure, and construct the facility we're proposing for the Port Hope-Wesleyville area.
We'll also be working very closely with equipment vendors with best available technologies for the front end, a material recovery facility where the waste will come into our facility. Also, we're working with them and with equipment vendors and areas for the boiler, steam turbine, and air quality control systems, which are all key components of the energy-from-waste facility that we're proposing to build in Port Hope. REM is answering the call for the Government of Ontario's need for thermal and gasification technologies to address Ontario's ever-increasing waste and environmental issues.
I'd also like to mention that I'm also the president of Grand River Green Power. Grand River Green Power is a 100% aboriginal-owned company, based on the Six Nations of the Grand River in southern Ontario. Grand River Green Power was established in 2005 with a focus on investing in green energy companies, our initial focus being in the wind and solar area.
Grand River Green Power conducted detailed wind studies on lands that we control in the Six Nations first nation community, but the wind regimes proved to be marginal at best, so we expanded our scope after that. We actually took a bit of a detour and did some other investments, but in 2012 we came back and decided within our management team to refocus Grand River Green Power and expand our area of investment opportunities to include other green energy verticals, with a desire to invest in Ontario, Canada, which resulted in our introduction to Renewable Energy Management.
Grand River Green Power did extensive due diligence on Renewable Energy Management and the Entech technology, which included a trip down to Port Hope to get a first-hand introduction and first-hand information about a project that was already in the works when we were looking at REM for a potential investment. In the fall of 2012, Grand River Green Power made the decision to invest. With the investment, we became the second-largest shareholder in Renewable Energy Management. I became the day-to-day present of REM in March of 2013, and I've been leading our efforts ever since then.
I will tell you a little bit about Entech. Entech's head office is in Perth, Western Australia. Entech has 20-plus years in the energy-from-waste space, and they specialize in the low-temperature gasification process. Much like REM, Entech is a company that designs, engineers, and commissions facilities based on their low-temperature gasification process, also in conjunction with local EPCs and other vendors in the areas wherever their facilities are being built.
Entech's system is modular in design. This design allows each facility to effectively process waste based on the volume and energy content of the waste streams that are available. There's no “scale up” risk with additional modules in a facility like the one we are proposing. Entech has years of experience in processing numerous waste streams utilizing their low-temperature gasification process.
In terms of the Port Hope project itself, we actually sent a contingent of people, a delegation from Port Hope, along with our staff, to visit two operating Entech facilities in Poland as we continued to move through the process of getting the energy-from-waste facility started in Port Hope.
The final thing I'd like to talk about in the presentation is our workings with the Ministry of the Environment here in Ontario. Our proposed project meets the MOE's requirements for their environmental screening process for waste management projects, according to Ontario regulation 101/07. Conestoga-Rovers and Associates were appointed by Renewable Energy Management as our environmental consultants to carry out numerous studies and the work required to meet the strict requirements that are put in place by the MOE.
REM has done a substantial amount of consultation over the past four years as the proposed project in Port Hope has evolved. The consultation has been with key stakeholders in the area, including the Municipality of Port Hope, Northumberland County, aboriginal groups in the area, academic institutions, the local business community, and the general public, with three open houses held over that period of time.
Entech-REM submitted our environmental screening report to the Ministry of the Environment in Ontario in late September 2013. Subsequent to the environmental screening report being submitted, REM, in conjunction with Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, is at this point in time conducting a human health and ecological risk assessment report to further support the environmental screening report and assure compliance with the MOE's regulatory requirements. This final detailed report is in the works right now, and will be completed later this year.
With that report finalized, the Entech-REM project will move into the second and final stage of the MOE approval process here in Ontario, which is an environmental compliance approval. That's the final stage of the MOE approval process, which focuses on the actual design and operation of the facility we're proposing to build in Port Hope.
It's only after we get through our final approval from the Ministry of the Environment on the steps I've just outlined above that we would be looking to begin construction of the proposed energy-from-waste facility on Wesleyville Road in Port Hope, Ontario.
Thank you.