"Low-Risk Biogas Power" made in the USA fuel cells Creative Financing Takes the Risk Out of a Biogas-to-Energy Project
By Doug Day
Sustainable Operations August 2015 Appeared in print as "Low-Risk Biogas Power"
A power purchase agreement lets a California agency benefit from a fuel-cell-based generation system without investing up-front capital.
A California clean-water plant has moved closer to a vision of being off the grid by 2020 through a partnership that now fulfills about 50 percent of its power needs.
Regional Water Recycling Plant No. 1 (RP-1), located in the City of Ontario and operated by Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA), delivers biogas to run a privately owned fuel cell installation, then buys the power at rates below utility grid prices.
The 44 mgd (design) tertiary plant treats an average of 28 mgd. Its effluent, along with that of IEUA’s other three wastewater treatment plants, goes into the utility’s reclaimed water system, where it is used for in-house processes; for irrigation of parks, golf courses and farms; for industrial purposes; and for groundwater recharge.
Its biosolids system uses three-phase digestion, which provides some 700,000 cubic feet of biogas every day for the fuel cells. The biosolids are trucked to an IEUA composting facility in Rancho Cucamonga that produces more than 230,000 cubic yards of SoilPro Premium Compost per year.
Cleaner electricity
IEUA needed a new plan when air-quality regulations required a reduction in output of RP-1’s two 1.4 MW cogeneration engines. While their total output capacity was the same as the new 2.8 MW fuel cell installation, the agency was limited by emissions standards to operating just one of engines.
The agency decided on a partnership with a private firm, which owns and operates the fuel cell plant and handled its design, financing and construction. The system uses a DFC3000 Direct FuelCell power plant from FuelCell Energy, which calls the project the largest digester gas fuel cell installation operating in the United States. It went online in January 2013.
In exchange, IEUA signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to buy all the electricity the fuel cells generate. “Most of the biogas is used by the fuel cells,” says Pietro Cambiaso, IEUA senior engineer for environmental compliance. “Excess gas is used in boilers to heat the digesters.” Heat from the fuel cells is also recovered.
Switching to fuel cells, which don’t require combustion, greatly reduced emissions:
Carbon monoxide (CO) by 92 percent
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 6 percent
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by 91 percent
Sulfur oxides (SOx) by 72 percent
Particulate matter by 86 percent
A small amount of gas from the acid phase of digestion is flared because it is low in heating value and would require substantially more cleanup of hydrogen sulfide and siloxanes than the rest of the digester gas.
No capital investment
The PPA gives IEUA a set cost for electricity into the future without having to fund the project from its capital budget. “There was no capital outlay,” says Cambiaso. “We’re only purchasing the power at an established rate. We didn’t want to assume the risk, so the PPA was a good solution.”
Jesse Pompa, senior associate engineer in environmental compliance, adds that the PPA addresses some issues the agency had heard of with other projects. “With other agencies, we had seen that the gas conditioning skid and the fuel cells would be from separate manufacturers, and there would be a lot of finger-pointing if there was any downtime.
The fuel cells can also be powered with natural gas, in which case RP-1 still pays the guaranteed starting rate for the power: 12.6 cents per kWh with a 2.5 percent annual escalation. That is comparable to the price now paid to Southern California Edison. “The assumption is that Edison’s rates will increase between 4 and 6 percent based on historical data,” says Cambiaso. “Over time, we’re going to see the savings.”
Supply and demand
RP-1’s electrical demand ranges from 3.5 MW in winter to just above 4 MW in summer. “There is some parasitic load for the 2.8 MW fuel cell plant, so we see a maximum of around 2.4 MW,” says Pompa.
The fuel cells are supplemented by a 4-acre, 800 kW solar array, installed in 2008, that uses both fixed and tracking solar panels. IEUA installed similar systems at all its locations through a PPA with SunPower, for a total of 3.5 MW solar generating capacity. The solar installations provide 8 percent of the utility’s electrical needs, replacing power previously purchased off the grid.
“We’re still working on implementing some efficiency projects at RP-1 to conserve energy,” says Cambiaso. “Ultimately, the goal is to be self-sufficient. We have higher demand in summer, so we need to work on that. In winter, we make some excess power and are working with the local utility to export that power back to the grid.”
At present, biogas generation matches up well with the need for gas on site, but the agency is considering adding gas storage. “The demand may change or the production may change,” says Cambiaso. “So we’re looking to see if it would be cost-effective to add gas storage.”
original report:
https://www.tpomag.com/editorial/2015/08/creative_financing_takes_the_risk_out_of_a_biogas_to_energy_project
Hunton & williams LLP’s tax team secures Section 1603 victory for clients
USA April 4 2015
On March 31, 2015, in RP1 Fuel Cell, LLC and UTS SJ-1, LLC v. United States, Judge Marian Blank Horn of the US Court of Federal Claims held that the plaintiffs were entitled to Section 16031 Treasury Grant amounts reduced by the Department of Treasury in relation to two fuel cell power plants designed and constructed to be operated on biogas from wastewater treatment sludge anaerobic digesters. During the grant award process, Treasury reduced the grant paid to the plaintiffs on the ground that the gas conditioning equipment used to condition the biogas and remove impurities so that it could be used in the fuel cells was not “qualified fuel cell property.” The plaintiffs filed suit in the US Court of Federal Claims to recover the grant amounts withheld by Treasury for this equipment.
Under the Section 1603 Treasury Grant program, energy facilities that were placed in service or had begun construction between 2009 and 2011 qualify for cash grants of 30 percent of the basis of certain “specified energy property” in lieu of the Investment Tax Credit under Section 48 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”). The language of Section 1603 provides that “specified energy property” includes any qualified fuel cell property under Code Section 48(c)(1). Subsequent guidance issued by Treasury additionally provides that specified energy property includes tangible personal property that is an “integral part” of the facility. The plaintiffs argued that the gas conditioning equipment was integrated balance of plant equipment with the fuel cell stack assemblies. The plaintiffs argued in the alternative that the equipment qualified for the grant as an integral part of a “trash facility” that uses municipal waste to generate electricity.
In a detailed and comprehensive opinion, Judge Horn held that certain gas conditioning equipment used in conjunction with anaerobic digester gas constituted part of the “fuel cell power plant” under Code Section 48(c)(1)(C). Judge Horn further found that the gas conditioning equipment was an “integral part” of the fuel cell power plant. Additionally, Judge Horn found that the fuel cell facilities also met the definitional requirements to be considered “trash facilities” under Code Section 45(d)(7).
The Department of Justice, litigating on behalf of the Department of Treasury, had argued that the gas conditioning equipment did not fit within the definition of fuel cell power plant. Additionally, the Department of Justice asserted that the plaintiffs’ alternate argument — that the gas conditioning equipment was an “integral part” of the facility, as that term is understood in Treasury Regulation Section 1.48-1(d)(4) — was misguided because the language in the regulations was promulgated in reference to a part of Code Section 48 that was subject to a 1990 sunset provision. The court rejected these arguments. With respect to the Department of Justice’s primary argument, Judge Horn determined that the intended use of the facility must be taken into account in determining whether any unit of property is qualified energy property. Here, the court determined that the intended use of the fuel cell power plants was to generate electricity using the digester biogas as a fuel. The gas conditioning equipment was integral to that intended use. The court stated:
The record [. . .] indicates that plaintiffs’ gas conditioning equipment is part of “an integrated system comprised of a fuel cell stack assembly and associated balance of plant components which converts a fuel into electricity using electrochemical means.” I.R.C. § 48(c)(1)(C). The key terms in the statute, “integrated system,” “balance of plant,” and “fuel,” should be understood to include the components necessary to the fuel cell facilities’ intended operation on anaerobic digester biogas. * * * The court considers the gas conditioning equipment at issue in this case as part of a “fuel cell power plant,” and, thus, as part of a “QUALIFIED FUEL CELL PROPERTY” under Section 1603(d)(2). (emphasis in original).
With respect to the Department of Justice’s alternate argument, Judge Horn noted that “although the underlying provision of the Internal Revenue Code related to the ‘integral part’ test may have been subject to sunset, the regulation still exists, and appears to be in use today.” Judge Horn further noted that, according to the guidance issued by Treasury in relation to the 1603 Grant Program, “[p]roperty is an integral part of a qualified facility if the property used directly in the qualified facility and is essential to the completeness of the activity performed in that facility.” Judge Horn ultimately determined that the gas conditioning equipment at issue fit this definition of being an “integral part” of the facility.
The parties also asserted arguments on an alternative issue of whether or not the RP1 and SJ-1 facilities would qualify for the grant as “trash facilities” described in Code Section 45(d)(7). Judge Horn noted that “[t]he record reflects that the adjacent digesters and RP1 and SJ-1 fuel cell facilities can be considered, in combination, as one integrated unit.” She further found that:
A review of the record and statutes [. . .] indicates that the sludge, wastewater sludge and biosolids that enter an anaerobic digester fit within the definition of solid waste under 42 U.S.C. § 6903(27), and are municipal solid waste under I.R.C. § 45(c)(6). As a result, the RP1 and SJ-1 fuel cell facilities, “integrated” with the anaerobic digesters at the IEUA Regional Plant No. 1 and San Jose Water Pollution Control Plant, qualify as “[t]rash facilities” pursuant to I.R.C. § 45(d)(7). (emphasis in original)
Judge Horn ultimately held that the facilities met the definitional requirements to be considered as “trash facilities” but concluded that “the record was not sufficiently developed to determine the plaintiffs’ grant entitlement under a ‘Trash Facility’ qualification.”
This opinion emanating from the US Court of Federal Claims marks the first time that a court has decided a 1603 Treasury Grant case after a full trial and briefing. Moreover, it marks the first dispositive court decision on a 1603 Treasury Grant issue that reaches a favorable result for the taxpayer.
Read a copy of the Court of Federal Claims’ decision in RP1.
To view all formatting for this article (eg, tables, footnotes), please access the original here.
Filed under
USA Energy & Natural Resources Litigation Tax Hunton & Williams LLP
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=10d15297-2709-4a3c-9a41-d6d7fce65da6
Original court documents:
https://www.novoco.com/energy/resource_files/court_rulings/fuel_cell_vs_us_040315.pdf
Video of FCEL American technology not made in China;
https://youtu.be/-r60vOtwTps?list=FLAMcyNe6fSSPjsFJHID-zjA