Viaspace signs EPC supervision agreement for 12MW Giant King Grass power plant in Nicaragua

Energia Reino Verde (ERV) has signed an agreement for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) supervision of the 12MW biomass power plant that will be co-located with the 834 hectare (2,060 acre) Giant King Grass (GKG) plantation project in Nicaragua.

Viaspace owns a 50% interest in ERV, the special-purpose company that will own and operate the project. The other 50% is owned by investors and executives of Agricorp, a large agribusiness company in Nicaragua.

The agreement was signed with a global EPC company that will provide the power plant engineering and equipment. The agreement provides technical specifications of all the power plant equipment, price, and power plant performance guarantees. The name of the company was not revealed.

Viaspace CEO Dr Carl Kukkonen, who is also secretary of ERV, and Agricorp CEO Amilcar Ybarra-Rojas, who is also president of ERV, negotiated the 200+ page agreement during the last three months. The agreement was signed in Managua, Nicaragua on 7 April.

Kukkonen says: 'We received substantial assistance in the proposal evaluation and negotiations from the team at Pelican SA, which conducted the formal feasibility study for the project, and from experienced power plant operators in Nicaragua, and our attorneys.'

Viaspace chairman Dr Kevin Schewe adds: 'Completing the EPC selection process, along with the detailed negotiations and signing the agreement has been a significant step forward to making the 12MW Viaspace Giant King Grass-fuelled power plant a reality. We have been very cost-conscious with the overall ERV project design and have conducted this process in a way that we can replicate it again in Nicaragua or elsewhere and create "economies of scale" for future projects.'

 

SOURCE: Viaspace