Montreal, February 24, 2016 - Biothermica, owner of the biogas power plant located on the site of the former Miron quarry in Montreal, announces the sale of its interests in the Gazmont limited partnership to Groupe Helios. Gazmont operator of the plant since 1996, Groupe Helios specializes in the management of urban infrastructures.
"This is a significant page of our history that we turn today", said Mr Guy Drouin, President of Biothermica. In 1987, Biothermica and her partners have developed and implemented the valorization project for the biogas from the Montreal landfill site, which materialized by the commissionning of a 25 MW power plant in June of 1996, the largest of its kind in Canada.
"We are proud of this innovative project that turned to be a technological showcase in the heart of Montreal. We have chosen to divest of these assets in order to focus on eligible projects on the carbon market, as planned in our 2016-2020 business plan. In fact, as the carbon market is expected to grow significantly following the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, it represents a business opportunity to seize", said Mr. Guy Drouin, President of Biothermica.
Let's remember that Biothermica was the first Quebec company to generate the sale of carbon credits on the Quebec-California carbon market. These carbon credits come from a methane destruction project on a coal mine from Jim Walter Resources (JWR) company in Brookwood, Alabama. This first opens the way for several other similar projects in Canada, while Quebec has just recognized as eligible for its own carbon market for this type of project carried out across Canada.
Biothermica considers to prioritize its work in this sector in Canada, the US, Australia, China and Kazakhstan and so participate in GHG reduction efforts as desired by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.