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Starwood Energy part owner in biomass plant

Jan. 17, 2012, Greenwich, CT - An affiliate of Starwood Energy Group Global, LLC, an energy infrastructure investment firm, has acquired a partial ownership interest in the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center from Tyr Energy, Inc.

January 17, 2012  By PR Newswire


Jan. 17, 2012, Greenwich, CT – An investment affiliate of Starwood Energy Group
Global, LLC ("Starwood Energy"), an energy infrastructure investment
firm, has acquired a partial ownership interest in the Gainesville
Renewable Energy Center ("GREC") from Tyr Energy, Inc. GREC is a 100 MW
biomass power plant currently under construction in Gainesville,
Florida. The acquisition was signed and closed on December 30, 2011. The
other ownership stakes in GREC remain unchanged and the original
American Renewables development team continues to oversee the
construction of GREC.

GREC will sell energy, capacity and environmental attributes to the City
of Gainesville, Florida d/b/a Gainesville Regional Utilities ("GRU")
under a 30 year power purchase agreement. GREC began construction in
March 2011 and is expected to generate power by late 2013. GREC is
creating approximately 900 direct construction jobs at the peak of
construction and once operational, it will create 47 direct permanent
jobs at the facility, approximately 160 permanent jobs procuring biomass
fuel for the facility and over 500 indirect/induced jobs throughout the
region. Once complete, GREC will be among the largest biomass energy
facilities in the country, generating clean, renewable power for
approximately 70,000 households.

GREC closed on financing in June 2011 with a consortium of investors led
by Energy Management, Inc. Construction debt, which will be converted
to term debt, is being provided through a commercial bank facility led
by The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. and a group of seven European
and US banks. Equity financing for approximately 40% of the ownership
interests is provided by Starwood Energy affiliates and its investors.
The total cost of the facility is approximately $500 million.

"We are very excited to be a part of this important project and the
impressive ownership group. This represents our second investment in a
biomass power facility in the last four months and allowed us to
capitalize on our expertise to complete the acquisition in a short time
frame," said Himanshu Saxena, Senior Vice President of Starwood Energy.
Mr. Saxena continued, "We look forward to working with Jim Gordon, CEO
of Energy Management Inc. and Frank Getman, CEO of BayCorp Holdings Ltd.
to make this a very successful project."

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Jim Gordon, CEO of Energy Management, Inc, commented, "We are proud to
have the Starwood Energy Group, a well respected investor in
high-quality energy infrastructure projects, join us as a member of the
GREC equity group. We look forward to completing construction and
beginning operations in 2013, bringing jobs and locally-sourced, clean,
renewable energy to the citizens of the Gainesville area."

About Starwood Energy Group

Starwood Energy Group Global, LLC ("Starwood Energy"), an affiliate of
Starwood Capital Group Global, LLC ("Starwood Capital"), is a private
equity investment firm based in Greenwich, CT, that specializes in
energy infrastructure investments. Founded in 2005, Starwood Energy is
an active investor in power generation, renewable energy and
high-voltage power transmission projects in North America. Starwood
Energy has built and acquired a portfolio of natural gas fired power
generation, a portfolio of high-voltage power transmission projects in
various phases of development and operations, and a growing portfolio of
renewable energy power generation projects. More information can be
found at
www.starwoodenergygroup.com.


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