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Sofame Technologies Set to Create Finance and Carbon Credit Divisions
New Divisions To Support Equipment Sales While Generating Repetitive Revenues
MONTREAL, January 29, 2009 - Sofame Technologies Inc. (TSX-V: SDW), a leading manufacturer of innovative commercial-industrial heat recovery equipment and environmental solutions, is proceeding with plans to create equipment finance divisions in the United States and Canada. A Carbon division is also being created to pursue certification of investment grade carbon credits to assist Sofame's customers to maximize the financial benefits of purchasing Sofame's energy efficiency technology.
John Gocek, President and CEO of Sofame stated, "Sofame has been participating in the green revolution for over twenty years. With a proven track record of technical achievements in industrial energy efficiency, an ability to finance our customers' green investments, and expertise in monetizing carbon savings and NOX reductions, Sofame is uniquely positioned to grow in the new green economy."
The two new businesses will be complimentary to the Sofame's core engineering and equipment manufacturing activities and should assist in reducing the long sales cycle and improving the customers' return on investment.
Equipment Finance Division: a Source of Repetitive Revenue for the Company
Some of Sofame's institutional and industrial customers have recently begun to indicate that availability of vendor financing would crystalize their resolve to invest the capital required to achieve fuel savings and reduce green house gas emissions. This interest led Sofame to proceed with two separate subsidiaries, one in the United States, and the other in Canada. In both cases, Sofame is seeking third party financing, and plans to share the energy savings achieved over time with end-users.
Sofame announced a plan to seek investors for the proposed financing arm in April 2008 while presenting at the Cleantech show in Brussels, Belgium. This energy savings company model would result in recurring revenues for Sofame over many years in addition to the initial revenue from the sale of equipment.
Carbon Credit Division to Monetize NOX Reductions and Carbon Offsets
The Sofame Carbon subsidiary would operate on a similar principle of recurring revenue by cooperating with end-users to document and harvest certified carbon credits over many years while sharing the gains with Sofame customers. Sofame would become an aggregator of relatively small amounts of carbon. Over time Sofame plans to bring them to market as the annual pool of carbon credits grows with each passing year, and the sale of more Sofame energy efficiency equipment continues to generate additional annual GHG emission reductions.
Sofame plans to enter into specific mandates with industry leading firms who are highly qualified advisors in the field of climate change. The resulting business plan will take into account actual opportunities to monetize NOX reductions and carbon offset credits and build on the widely anticipated sweeping changes in climate change legislation expected in the United States and Canada.
With over 300 systems installed to date, Sofame has helped cut GHG emissions by 150,000 tons a year. Over the past 20 years, Sofame technology has enabled industry to cut its emissions by 1.8 million tons - the equivalent of taking 300,000 cars off the road for one year.
Climate Change Legislation, Energy Efficiency Standards, Infrastructure Spending Expected Under Obama and Harper Green Plans
United States: Obama Green Plan
Currently, the US federal government is the world's largest single consumer of energy in the world, spending approximately $14.5 billion on energy consumption in FY 2008. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe in the importance of leading by example. They will make the federal government a leader in the green building market, achieving a 40 percent increase in efficiency in all new federal buildings within five years and ensuring that all new federal buildings are zero emissions by 2025. They will invest in cost-effective retrofits to achieve a 25 percent increase in efficiency of existing federal buildings within 5 years. The Obama-Biden plan will put forward the resources necessary to achieve a 15 percent reduction in federal energy consumption by 2015.
Canada: Harper Green Plan
A $1 billion Clean Energy Fund has been created to generate more than $2.5 billion in investments in clean energy research and projects. From this Fund, $150 million over five years will go towards research and $850 million over five years will go towards the development and demonstration of clean energy technologies. Another $1 billion investment has been made into a Green Infrastructure Fund that will support the development of sustainable energy infrastructure.
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