The Northern Virginia Daily
October 28, 2009
Maryland-based firm to merge with SoLAVerde on solar farmBy Ben Orcutt
FRONT ROYAL -- A Maryland-based company is planning to merge
with a local firm to build a 27-acre solar farm on the Avtex
Fibers Superfund site, now known as the Royal Phoenix.
It had been previously announced that Greg Horton, owner of
Arctic Air Refrigeration in Front Royal, would be partnering
with Leesburg developer William Lauterbach on the project under
the name of SolAVerde. The plan also included a solar racking
assembly plant to be located in the
A former rayon manufacturing plant, Avtex closed in 1989 due to
environmental pollution. The 440-acre site is bordered in part
by the South Fork of the
On Tuesday, Steve Lamb, the majority shareholder of Standard
Solar in
"Standard Solar has been in the solar industry now for four
years," Lamb said. "We were in discussion with William
Lauterbach and some of the local folks here and then met [Town
Manager J. Michael Graham] and so we are going to create a new
company and merge all of these companies together into one
entity, which is gonna have a business model that is both
utility as well as commercial and residential. It's gonna build
on the strength of what Standard Solar's already done, along
with SolAVerde and projects that we're developing in the
municipal market."
Lamb said one of the primary reasons for the merger is that
Standard Solar is in a much better position to leverage funding
for the Royal Phoenix project than SolAVerde.
"All of this isn't out in the public domain yet, but we are
going to rename the company at that time [as] Standard Energy
and the reason is, while we love Standard Solar and that brand
is booming in the marketplace, we also believe there are some
other opportunities in the broader renewable energy market and
that we can pursue some of those with the manufacturing facility
here in Front Royal," Lamb said. "What I see is an opportunity
here to use this site to not only provide electricity to Front
Royal, but potentially to make Front Royal a renewable energy
hub in the broader marketplace here, which could be very
advantageous to the economic development of the town."
Lamb said he and longtime partner Jim Sharman, from the
Lamb said Standard Energy would be seeking $17 million to $18
million in bonds to fund the project.
"The beauty of this financing is when the bonds are issued, the
rating agencies and the underwriters will all ensure that the
business model and the ownership for the farm is creditworthy,"
Lamb said.
Graham said that Kim Gilkey-Breeden, the town's finance
director, has been meeting with Jennifer McDonald, the executive
director of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development
Authority, on possible ways of funding the Royal Phoenix solar
project.
"Kim is working with Jennifer to look at all sorts of
opportunities of funding," Graham said. "The town, because of
our credit rating and everything else, might be able to secure
bonds at a lower interest rate than the EDA. But they're
investigating all avenues to get the best possible deal for the
citizens, if that's the case. Right now, there's no decisions on
how this is gonna be funded. We know it's gonna be done through
some bondings, whether general revenue bonds or through IDA
industrial bonds."
Graham said the Town Council must approve a commitment to
purchase up to 100 megawatts of power from Standard Energy,
which would have until 2016 to complete the project.
"The whole deal is that they're building this field so that we
[have] low-cost, green energy," Graham said. "If the town
decides not to buy it, then the whole deal goes away. I think
the goal is they would like to have this thing voted on by Dec.
21 if it's possible to get the site plan through and get all the
financing up and running." |