LONDON: EQTEC plc announce that, together with its German EPC partner ewerGy GmbH, the Company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nobilis Pro Energy S.A., a private Greek company with a strong track record in the planning and construction of metal structures, metal buildings and other complex structures in Greece and abroad.

As an established supporter of the waste-to-energy proposition, Nobilis has for many years researched options for waste treatment at olive mills and wineries and has received a licence and key permissions for a 0.9MWe gasification plant in Almyros, Greece.

The MoU provides for the collaborative development of Nobilis’s existing pipeline of opportunities in Thessalia and Central Greece and for the proposed delivery of these and further advanced gasification projects, starting with the Almyros Plant.

The collaboration will be underpinned by a joint venture between EQTEC and ewerGy (“JV”). The MoU, which will be formalised contractually, envisages that project SPVs will be established for each project opportunity taken forward by the parties, with the JV being the majority shareholder of each SPV and Nobilis as the minority shareholder.

Each project will be subject to, inter alia, definitive agreements, funding and the granting of relevant permissions. The MoU sets out that Nobilis will be expected to provide the project pipeline, whilst the JV will be expected to source and provide project funding and project delivery capabilities (EQTEC will provide the design and core gasification technology and ewerGy will provide EPC services).

The Board of EQTEC believes that the MoU underlines the growing momentum behind EQTEC’s collaboration with ewerGy, the German energy equipment and solutions company and developer of renewable energy projects.

The MoU follows EQTEC’s announcements in March 2020, detailing the partners’ collaboration framework agreement and pipeline of 11 opportunities in Greece for the construction of advanced gasification facilities, and in August 2020, detailing the financial close of the fully permitted 0.5MWe waste gasification project in Larissa – Greece’s first waste-to-energy gasification plant – alongside ECO Hellas SA, ewerGy’s local EPC partner, and Agrigas Energy SA, the Greece based promoter and project developer that will own and operate the plant in Larissa.

David Palumbo, CEO of EQTEC, commented: “We are pleased to be on track for the development of another advanced gasification plant in Greece. Through our relationship with Nobilis, we expect to develop a pipeline of sustainable waste to energy projects in Greece that will benefit from EQTEC’s advanced biomass gasification as a great solution for clean energy generation.

The MoU also highlights the growing strength of our partnership with ewerGy, as we pursue a growing pipeline of opportunities in Greece and across the Balkans. This ‘strong partner’ model is fundamental to EQTEC as we further expand our business development and project delivery reach.”

Lambros Apostolopoulos, CEO of Nobilis, commented:  “We are enthusiastic about our collaboration with EQTEC and ewerGy. Greece has an enormous, but very little exploited, potential for green power investments. We have been looking forward to developing this project at Almyros for many years, seeking to provide solutions for our established and growing pipeline of sustainable waste management projects in the region of Thessalia and Central Greece.

We are pleased at the prospect of this project being implemented, as we expect that it will enable the recovery of clean energy and deliver economic value from waste in the region. Our partners EQTEC and ewerGy have vast technological know-how and expertise in advanced gasification and we are confident that our partnership will deliver attractive investment opportunities in the waste-to-energy market.”

Gerd Kromarck, CEO of ewerGy, commented: “We are very pleased to take another step together with our partner EQTEC in this JV and the potential for shared ownership in another exciting project.  We see Nobilis as a company that sets and successfully achieves its goals, so we are delighted to enter into this MoU with them.  We would also like to thank our partner ECO HELLAS for its support in making such collaborations possible in Greece.” www.eqtec.com

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