Cate Street Capital

BERLIN – Cate Street Capital has finalized its financing for the Berlin Station biomass plant, paving the way for construction to get underway this week.

“They’ve been funded,” said Berlin Mayor Paul Grenier. 

Grenier said Cate Street Capital officials notified him of the closing late Friday afternoon. 

“I think this is the beginning of a new economic era for the city of Berlin,” he said.

The settlement agreement reached between Public Service of N.H. and the six independent smaller biomass plants called for the company to complete its financing by Aug. 30. Cate Street Capital President John Halle on Tuesday said he was in the process of finalizing the financing but said it would take a complete of days to complete all the paperwork. Halle said Cate Street Capital has been working on the financing for over a year.

Grenier said Babcock and Wilcox will be on site this week to start the construction. Halle said the company, which built the chemical recovery boiler that is being converted to burn biomass, will set up shop on the site in the old warehouse building. The company is serving as the engineering, procurement, and construction firm for the project.

The mayor said Cate Street Capital is working to find other medium to light manufacturing firms to locate on the 60-acre former mill site to take advantage of the stream and hot water the 75-megawatt biomass plant will have available. He said he envisions additional blue-collar jobs being created because of the presence of the biomass plant.

This Friday, the N.H. Public Utilities Commission has scheduled a pre-hearing conference on the settlement agreement that calls for short-term power purchase agreements for five of the six biomass plants. In exchange for the agreements, the biomass plants agreed to withdraw their state Supreme Court appeal of the PUC’s order approving a 20-year power purchase contract between PSNH and Berlin Station.  

Grenier Friday singled out Gov. John Lynch and Commissioner of Resources and Economic Development George Bald for their work negotiating a settlement agreement between the parties when talks hit an impasse.

“This would not have happened without the direct intervention of Gov. Lynch,” he said.

Grenier also thanked his fellow county commissioners for their early support of the Berlin Station project as well as the city councilors who ran with him on a platform that called for the city to back the project.

http://www.berlindailysun.com/featured/story/cate-street-capital-closes-financing-biomass-plant