WORTHINGTON, OH--(Marketwired - May 06, 2014) - Midwest Energy Emissions Corp. (OTCQB: MEEC) ("ME2C") today announces an investor update on new contracts for the first fiscal quarter of 2014, provides an estimate on its time horizon to reaching positive cash flow and introduces its plan to host quarterly earnings updates for investors and analysts with the company's senior management.
In the first quarter of 2014, the company has entered into Mercury and Air Toxic Standards
(MATS) compliance contracts on 11 electric generating units ("EGUs", or "units") in the Southwestern United States, utilizing its patented Sorbent Enhancement Additive (SEA) technology. These customer contracts span three electric utility customers, one major utility and two electric cooperatives. The company estimates annual revenues from these new contracts to be approximately $13 million in fiscal year 2015, and increasing to approximately $30 million in fiscal year 2016. These utility customers have agreed to three year contracts that carry incremental system installation revenues to the company over the coming two years of approximately $10 million in the aggregate, with initial system installations beginning in this second quarter of 2014. With these new customer contracts, ME2C management estimates that the company will become free cash flow positive in 2015.
The company's management team has established a new quarterly investor relations program, holding quarterly management conference calls for investors and analysts after the release of its quarterly results of operations. On these quarterly calls, management will update participants on the company's business and other material events.
Midwest Energy Emissions Corp. develops and employs patented and proprietary technologies to remove mercury from coal-power plants' emissions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) MATS rules requires that all coal-fired and oil-fired power plants in the United States that are larger than 25 mega-watts, remove approximately
90% of mercury from their emissions by April 16, 2015. ME2C employs patented technology that has been shown to achieve mercury removal levels compliant with MATS at a significantly lower cost and with less operational impact than currently used methods, while preserving the marketability of the fly-ash by-product generated at coal-power plants, a sales and marketing industry estimated to generate roughly $450 million annually.
ME2C CEO, R. Alan Kelley, stated, "Midwest Energy Emissions Corp, has had a milestone quarter of performance, where decades of exhaustive efforts to prove our best-of-breed SEA technology culminated in 11 EGU wins, with three new customers. Six of the units will enter compliance with MATS in 2015, and the additional five units will come online in 2016, as MATS allows states to grant their utilities an additional year for compliance. Midwest Energy Emissions Corp. will confidently deliver our clients the best solution for MATS regulations when MATS takes effect in the second quarter of 2015, and we look forward to continued strong growth."
Mr. Kelley continued, "I am also pleased to announce that based upon our estimates, the business that we have won in this past quarter can drive our company to generating positive free cash flow next year, and, expanding to generate significant free cash flow in 2016 when all of our contracted units come online. Once systems are installed, a contract generates, on average, approximately $3 million of revenue per unit annually, with significant gross margins on each unit. Summarizing our market opportunity, we are addressing a very large market in MATS -- roughly 900 EGUs nationally -- that begins in just one year's time. Midwest has a very scalable business model that delivers tremendous operating leverage for our shareholders."
Kelley concluded, "Our focus has been to drive our powerful mercury capture solution to maximum market penetration and to move the company to profitability, while exhibiting the highest level of attention to our quality of execution and customer service. As MEEC grows from here, we will expand our business operations to maintain both growth and execution capability. We look forward to continuously updating shareholders on material events and further contract wins in the coming quarters, and as well, on our quarterly performance at the end of each fiscal quarter going forward."
About Midwest Energy Emissions Corp. Midwest Energy Emissions Corp. delivers cost-effective mercury capture technologies to power plants and other large industrial coal-burning units in the United States and Canada. The company's proprietary technology allows its customers to meet the new, highly restrictive standards that the EPA has set for mercury emissions, in a highly effective and economical manner with the least disruption to a customer's current equipment and on-going operations. For more information, please refer to the company's website at www.midwestemissions.com.
Safe Harbor Statement: With the exception of historical information contained in this press release, content herein may contain "forward-looking statements" that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. Matters that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, among other factors, the gain or loss of a major customer, change in environmental regulations, disruption in supply of materials, a significant change in general economic conditions in any of the regions where our customer utilities might experience significant changes in electric demand, a significant disruption in the supply of coal to our customer units, the loss of key management personnel, failure to obtain adequate working capital to execute the business plan and any major litigation regarding the Company. In addition, this release contains time-sensitive information that reflects management's best analysis only as of the date of this release. The Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events, information or circumstances that arise after the date of this release. Further information concerning issues that could materially affect financial performance related to forward-looking statements contained in this release can be found in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.