This Facility was originally in construction at the Company headquarters in Vista, California as a 2.5 MW biomass project. The Facility is being relocated and expanded at a new indusrial site in Santee, California. The Company plans on having the first power flowing from this updated project in the fourth quarter of this year.
The Facility is planned to process approximately 945 tons per week (only 9 trucks per day) of biomass to produce approximately 30 tons of mineral ash materials per week. The mineral ash materials will be comprised primarily of calcium, silicon, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium oxides.
The Company anticipates that the electricity produced at the Facility will be used to operate some of the ceramic curing ovens and other manufacturing equipment, with the surplus sold to a Utility on an "as available" basis. This allows the use of the Facility as a true "cogeneration" unit for the manufacturing of ceramics for other combustion units, at effectively one-third the cost for electricity. The Facility is designed to export to the local service (12 KV) grid approximately 3 MW on a continuous basis with only minor down time (95% uptime). The Kittyhawk Renewable Energy Facility will also certified under the State of California's Renewable Portfolio Standard.
All fuel for the Facility is expected to come from a radius of less than 10 miles. The Company believes that approximately 100,000 tons of suitable fuel material will be available for the Facility each year in this small radius. This fuel is typically from tree trimmings and clean wood sources. The fuel material can be delivered to the Facility as opposed to the surrounding landfills, allowing existing landfill space to be utilized for materials that are truly not recyclable, thereby extending the life of the landfills.