Renewable and Reliable

How does bioenergy fit into your economic model? Converting organic waste into bioenergy and other valuable products can reduce waste disposal costs, increase revenues, hedge rising energy costs, and address your customers concerns for sustainable operations.  But how confident are you in your solution?

With rising energy and waste disposal costs, many businesses are evaluating waste conversion/management systems to minimize future expenses and replace “dirty” energy with clean renewables.

But to achieve the economic returns that are needed to justify the expense of bioenergy systems, the value of various energy offtakes, nutrient offtakes, and other products must be considered.

Are you are seeking additional information because you’re having difficulty obtaining data that gives you adequate confidence in your business plan? 

Misguided projections lead to financial problems, and “lack of confidence” equals risk and higher costs. Cavanaugh excels in addressing these questions, and uncovering the traps that may be waiting for you on your project pathway.

To Improve confidence and minimize risks, Cavanaugh offers these services:

Feasibility Analysis Often, clients need help developing a more informed business plan, based on inputs that are credible and directly correlated to their business plan. Typically, this work results in the preparation of a Feasibility Study Report that conforms with the requirements of banks, lenders, and guarantors like USDA and EPA. Less frequently, clients wish to prepare the required documents, or simply need help with certain parts. We routinely help clients perform feedstock characterizations, feedstock valuations, technology assessments, prepare pro formas, and describe applicable permitting and regulatory requirements.  For more information on this offering, please click here. You may also wish to review some of our blog articles on this topic, such as The Business Case for Bioenergy Systems - Part One.

Validation For clients who need additional confidence in existing feasibility studies, we perform validation to accurately assess the percentage or probability that the projections and recommendations in the project accurately match the outcome. The Validation Study also identifies gaps in the information that lead to inaccurate projections for costs, operations, and worst of all, revenues. The Validation Study provides invaluable information so clients benefit from an informed opinion and much greater confidence in their projects.  This translates into reduced risk, which results in reduced development costs and increased investor confidence.  Many banks and lenders require a third-party validation assessment, such as Independent Engineering Services (IE Services)  prepared for bioenergy systems they consider during the underwriting process.

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ImplementationCavanaugh frequently provides implementation assistance ranging from simply helping them put together a project execution plan to assisting with the vendor selection process, offtake agreement negotiation, and support needed to finance, build, and commission a system. We also provide design services, particularly for systems that precede and follow the waste conversion process.  We typically find that "off-the-shelf" and readily available systems more often fail due to short-sighting the systems required that precede and follow the waste conversion technology. Cavanaugh can close the gap and eliminate risk for failures between the waste source and the conversion technology. Examples of some of our implementation experiences may be viewed here.

Optimization As systems age, performance may decline. We can help clients identify the performance detractors, develop a plan to remedy the issues, and provide ongoing operational assistance to ensure optimal performance.  It’s not unusual for clients to find our optimization services provide them with on-going support that increases their system performance, reduces downtime, and lets them focus on running their business.

What does this mean for you?

At Cavanaugh, we provide answers to your questions and concerns regarding your bioenergy system. We’re here to help you achieve your business, energy and environmental goals in smart, sustainable ways.  Do you have a clear plan to meet these goals with 100% confidence?  Whether you currently simply dispose of your waste organics or have an operational bioenergy harvesting system, you should contact our Director of Bioenergy, Gus Simmons, to explore the ways you can derive more value from your bioenergy system.

Loyd Ray Farms project’s anaerobic digester, Yadkinville, NC