By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
New players have been announced for the Renewable Natural Gas project at the Tucker County Solid Waste Authority Landfill. Authority Presiding Chair Mark Holstine made the announcement during the Authority’s December meeting December 18th at the Tucker County Solid Waste Authority Office on Landfill Road.
Just prior to the meeting, Holstine met with a representative from one of the two new companies attached to the project, Holstine said. A representative Holstine said was named Zach from Avolta discussed his company’s role in the upcoming natural gas project. “You all saw Renewable Natural Gas show up with Zach from Avolta,” Holstine said. “This is where it gets complicated. Over the last month, basically, Renewable Natural Gas has contracted some of this out to first Nacelle, then to Avolta.”
Holstine said that Avolta will be the first point of contact on the project and the main owner onsite. “The way this is going to work, is Avolta is going to be your owner of your project onsite,” Holstine said.
The second company attached to the project, Nacelle, Holstine said, is slated to provide equipment for the project out of Charleston. “Nacelle will be another company. They’re out of Charleston that will provide equipment to the site for our Renewable Natural Gas Project,” Holstine said.
Holstine described the process of brokering the deal to the board. According to Holstine, Renewable Natural Gas acted as brokers who worked on the project from brokering a deal and design phase then brought in other contractors to complete the work which is where Avolta and Nacelle come into play. “So as I had probably anticipated, Jeffery Craig with RNG represents investors who put out the initial capital for the project,” Holstine said. “Then they get the project started in design. Then they take that design and broker it out to a contractor who wants to buy in. And the result is, Avolta will be who we deal with onsite. They’re going to build it. They’re going to operate it. They’re going to get most of their equipment from Nacelle, which is another company out of Charleston.”
Holstine said he had done extensive research on the process, as had his counsel and he was aware that this was coming from some of the documents he had previously signed. “I’ve done research on this,” Holstine said. “My counsel has done research on this. There has been documents that I have signed relaying some of that responsibility over to Avolta and Nacelle. All of its clean for now. Its not uncommon.”
According to Holstine he had also suspected that there would be other players later in the process since he had only dealt with Jeffery Craig in the past. “I’d anticipated it because with Jeffery never seen anybody else,” Holstine said. “We’d talked to one other person on the phone with Jeffery, but its mainly just been him. So now we know how this is really going to work.”
In his meeting with Zach from Avolta, Holstine said he “run him through the ringer a little bit ago” on the project. Holstine said he felt that Zach was forthcoming with his answers and would be a solid partner moving forward. “I run him through the ringer a little bit ago,” Holstine said. “So how’s this working and they came clean with it all.”
According to Holstine, Zach is from Morgantown and is excited about the project and the prospect of having a West Virginia based project. “The guy that was here, Zach, he’s from Morgantown and is excited to get this project started because a lot of their projects are from out of state,” Holstine said. “So he’s excited to have a project right here in his own backyard.”
Holstine said he feels the board should take advantage of the publicity opportunities this project will provide once it is operational. According to Holstine, there is no other landfill in the State doing a project like this and the TCSWA should take advantage of its position as a leader in landfill gas management. “This is a project that I have already questioned him on that we should take advantage of publicity wise once it gets going,” Holstine said. “There’s no other landfill doing anything quite like we are getting ready to do. So I think we should use that as positive publicity for this board in this area in kind of taking the lead in managing their landfill gas. Big cudos to us I think for bringing this along and I think it is something you can be proud of. ”
Holstine did say, however, that the introduction of the new companies into the mix has delayed the timeline for the project. According to Holstine, the board should not expect any work on the project to commence onsite for at least 12 to 18 months. “However, the new players and all have slowed it down a bit,” Holstine said. “So you’re probably still looking at 12 to 18 months before you see any real dirt flying anywhere up here. But its going to be worth it for sure.”
