Work as a member of the sales and marketing team researching potential energy consulting and development opportunities, writing proposals and maintaining the company’s business opportunities tracking data base. Assist management in improving marketing and presentation materials.
Develop, compile and update NOVI Energy marketing documents: proposals, qualifications materials and presentations. Enhance and update website and news items. Plan and support participation in various energy related conferences. Assist in the marketing of NOVI Energy offerings that align with company strategy and management vision.

Candidate Qualifications

• Four-year degree in Marketing, Communications, Public Relations or related degree.
• Experience in a similar role within a construction, development or engineering consulting firm is desired.
• Experience working with Federal Government Agencies, including General Services Administration (GSA) schedules, FARs and related procurement processes.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office including Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Ability to multi task and work with aggressive deadlines as required.
• Excellent computer research, communication and writing skills.
• Ability to work independently, as a lead or a team member.
• Demonstrated ability to produce proposal and professional presentations.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Excellent writing, proofreading and editing skills.
• Graphic design skills a plus.

You may e-mail your resume to: lwhite@novienergy.com
Subject: Marketing & Sales Coordinator

Or you may mail/fax your resume to:

No telephone calls please.

FREMONT — Rather than get sent to rot in a landfill, about 100,000 tons of food processing waste will be converted into electricity once Michigan’s first large-scale biodigester comes online this summer.

Construction on the $22 million Fremont Community Digester and electric generator is just now wrapping up, and testing at the facility should begin in a matter of months.
The project’s developer, NOVI Energy, also signed a $55 million agreement with Consumers Energy to purchase approximately 380,000 megawatt-hours or 19,000 MWh per year of electricity from the plant over the next 20 years. The deal marks the first time the utility will buy energy made from food processing waste.

Anand Gangadharan, president and CEO of NOVI Energy, a Southeast Michigan-based energy consultant company, said the company took a little over 10 years to search out the best technology and finally found it Denmark and Sweden. The company then entered a licensing agreement with the technology providers and brought the process to Michigan, he said.

Using food and other organic waste, the digester breaks down the material into two products: nutrient concentrate, which can then be sold as agricultural fertilizer, and methane gas for energy production.

Contracts with local food processing companies, including Gerber Products Co. and the Fremont Cooperative Produce Company, will maintain the supply of organic waste. As and added benefit, the waste suppliers will also be able to hurdle the waste limits imposed on them by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

The facility expects to process between 300 and 400 tons of waste a day to maintain an output of 3 megawatts of power. Gangadharan said the facility would process 100,000 tons of waste a year, a significant impact on the amount of organic waste going to local landfills. He said because of Michigan’s tremendous agriculture base, the setting is very ripe — no pun intended — for the technology to secure itself a place in the state’s energy portfolio.

“A portfolio approach to energy is essential,” he said. “Power from digesters and digester gas should be a tool in the arsenal.”

The state of Michigan considers energy created from biomass a form of renewable energy.

While Gangadharan sees plenty of opportunity for more digesters in the state, he admits the reality of solving long-term energy problems will take a blended approach. The broader the range of a portfolio, the better it is and the less risk there is, he said.

“Encouragement from utilities and governmental institutions is just catching up,” he said. “This project happened primarily because of the renewable portfolio standard in Michigan.”

Last summer Consumers Energy inked a $55 million contract with NOVI Energy to purchase the power supplied from the digester over the next 20 years.

The agreement helps Consumers Energy fulfill its RPS mandate that 10 percent of its electricity come from renewable sources by 2015. However, at 3 megawatts, the plant is but a small piece of the utility’s broader energy portfolio, said spokesman Dan Bishop. Consumers is halfway toward meeting its RPS target with 5 percent of its electricity coming from renewable sources.

“It’s not really going to raise our portfolio, but smallness is secondary to innovative quality,” Bishop said. “This partnership is a demonstration of a collaborative effort to make something like this possible.”

While the construction of wind turbines has dominated a greater portion of the discussion on alternative energy, Gangadharan said operation of the Fremont digester is encouraging for other like projects going forward.

Gangadharan said NOVI has already identified other opportunities and is waiting on other potential commitments from partners.

Huge tanks and a concrete building are taking shape in the Fremont Industrial Park as the new Fremont Community Digester project prepares to start turning agricultural waste into electricity and fertilizer this summer.

The $22 million project, developed by Novi Energy, is expected to use a bacteria process to convert approximately 100,000 tons per year of agricultural waste into methane gas to be burned to generate electricity. The digester process is also expected to produce fertilizer and compost for west Michigan farms. It is said to be one of the first large-scale anaerobic digesters using co-digestion to be built in the United States.

Indus Energy, an investment group based in Bingham Farms, Mich., is the majority owner of the digester. North Central Cooperative, which includes the former Fremont Cooperative Produce, is a minority owner and will market the plant’s fertilizer and compost.

North Central Senior Manager Rob Zeldenrust of Fremont said that the digester is expected to start receiving the agricultural waste products in early July. He said that the digester already has contracts representing 80 percent of the digester’s capacity, with three other food processing companies currently in the contracting process.

Zeldenrust said that the digester will take in approximately 350 tons per day, a level that leaves room for some seasonal or short-term surges in the supply stream. He said that the combination of having an environmentally friendly waste destination and a local source of fertilizer has the potential of fueling local or regional growth in food processing and an accompanying growth in production and sales of west Michigan produce. He observed that such growth would also bring a growth in local jobs. U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow and other federal, state and local government officials attended a ground-breaking ceremony in June at the site on Locust St.

Consumers Energy has agreed to buy all the electricity produced by the plant, which is expected to employ a total of eight full-time employees to operate the facility. The technology for the anaerobic digester comes from Denmark, and plans call for the digester’s local technicians to be trained in Denmark.
Zeldenrust said that the soil amendments and plant food produced by the digester will replace imported fertilizer products that are highly susceptible to oil price fluctuations and international uncertainties.

Zeldenrust noted that the Fremont Community Digester is expected to be the first of several such projects. He said that people are calling from other states and Canada to ask about the project and the possibility of building digester projects in other communities. He said that a second digester is being planned for a site elsewhere in Michigan, although the partners are not ready to reveal that location yet.

“We are ready to break ground on the second one,” Zeldenrust said, “but we’re not going to do that until we have this one up and running and we can demonstrate that this one is operating the way it’s supposed to. We want to wait until we know that we’re delivering on our promise to the community.”

Along with the electricity and the fertilizer products, the facility is also expected to produce some extra gas and some hot water that could be used by neighboring businesses. Zeldenrust said that those considerations are being used in the effort to attract other industrial or processing operations to the Fremont Industrial Park.
At the construction site, a stainless steel pre-treatment tank and one of three big digester tanks are in place, with construction crews also working on a concrete building that will house the electricity generating machinery and a steel frame building that will house a centrifuge for separating the fertilizer and plant food components.

NOVI Energy, LLC
23955 Novi Road
Novi, MI 48375

NOVI Energy’s new offices are located just south of Ten Mile Road, on the west side of Novi Road. The Company’s telephone number, (248) 735-NOVI (6684) and fax number, (248) 735-0088, remain the same.
NOVI Energy is an entrepreneurial company that provides a broad range of services in energy consulting, energy management and energy infrastructure project development for utility, industrial, institutional and commercial clients across the United States and the world.

For more information, visit www.novienergy.com or call 248-735-6684.

(NOVEC Site)

NORTHERN VIRGINIA – The Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative marked progress made at its NOVEC Energy Production, Halifax County Biomass plant on Nov. 17, 2011, at the Halifax Country Club, in Halifax, Va. The gathering of 85 workers, guests and dignitaries heard from United States Deputy Agriculture Undersecretary for Rural Development Doug O’Brien; Virginia Delegate James Edmunds II; South Boston Vice Mayor Edward Owens; Halifax County Board Chairman Thomas West; Executive Director Mike Sexton, Halifax Industrial Development Authority; as well as NOVEC President/CEO Stan Feuerberg.

Sexton expressed his gratitude to NOVEC and its development partner, NOVI Energy, for bringing jobs to the County. He said, “There will be a lot of people thankful for having jobs this Thanksgiving because of the plant.”

Fagen, Inc., the general contractor for the biomass project, has more than 100 workers currently on site and they expect to hire a construction workforce of 250 to 300 workers as the plant proceeds. Once completed in 2013, 26 full-time workers will be hired to run the plant, which will generate almost 50 megawatts of electricity for NOVEC customers.

In addition to bringing jobs to the Southside region, the project will bring Halifax County approximately $600,000 annually in property taxes.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced in October 2011 that the Rural Utility Service would loan NOVEC $90 million to build the plant. The money will come from the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). He said, “It’s a pretty exciting opportunity for several hundred jobs to be created immediately and provide renewable energy.”

Deputy Undersecretary O’Brien said on Nov. 17, “The Obama Administration is assisting cooperatives, small businesses, farmers and ranchers, as they work to reduce their energy costs. When energy costs are reduced, American rural businesses become more competitive, allowing them to expand and create jobs.”

Halifax Delegate Edmunds stressed that the Southside region needs jobs.

Feuerberg explained that the plant will burn wood leftover from the region’s logging industries to create electricity. He noted that forestry consultants have determined that there is an abundance of wood waste within a 75-mile radius of the facility.

NOVEC will own the plant, which will generate up to 6.5 percent of the Co-op’s energy requirements by 2014 — enough to serve the equivalent of approximately 16,000 residential customers.

NOVEC is a not-for-profit corporation that distributes electricity and energy services to more than 145,000 customers in Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford and Clarke counties, and the City of Manassas Park, making it one of the largest electric distribution cooperatives in the nation. For more information, visit www.novec.com or call 703-335-0500 or 1-888-335-0500.

Directors of the Halifax County Industrial Development Authority heard an update Friday on progress at the NOVI project, located at the site of the former Georgia Pacific property.

Plans for the 49.9 megawatt wood-fired electrical plant, owned and operated by Michigan-based NOVI Energy and its utility partner Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative, are now progressing. Employment during the two-year construction period is estimated at some 250 jobs.

When completed, the plant is expected to employ 26 full-time workers while creating another 67 field jobs. The plant will burn some 600,000 tons of wood annually, valued at $12 million with its “economic effect expected to ripple across the community,” said IDA Director Mike Sexton.

Officials with the company are now occupying three offices at the Energy Center in Riverstone Technology Building, but are expected to move very soon to the three trailers which are located at the plant site as work begins.

In other reports, Dr. Doug Corrigan, director of the Energy Center, advised that the flatline equipment provided by Superfici was installed at the C-Care facility in the Energy Center on time. When training on the equipment is completed on September 12, operations will begin on the wood finishing project. It is being carried out by the American Wood Finishing Institute, which has a five year lease.

Corrigan said five families will soon be moving into the community to work on the project, with a total of about 20 expected long term. One family, he said, already has purchased a home in the area.

IDA directors also approved an application for up to $600,000 in funds to join with the Town of Halifax in renovating the old Burlington plant, located on Cowford Road in Halifax.

The resolution notes that the General Assembly has allocated $3 million for FY12 to be used for the redevelopment of vacant and deteriorated industrial properties throughout the state. The old Burlington plant, built in 1946 in the Town of Halifax, is considered an important economic development parcel for business development and new employment opportunities, offering rail and natural gas access.

The resolution calls for the Halifax County Board of Supervisors to designate the IDA to make the application and to support a separate application for at least the same amount from the Tobacco Commission’s Southside Economic Development allocation for Halifax County.

Earlier in their meeting, directors honored former IDA board member Bill Kelehar with a framed resolution of appreciation for his five years of service, noting the many projects that have been undertaken during his tenure. Those included the purchase of the Day site and the FlextTec building, the NOVI project, site development of Riverstone Technology Park, the rehab of the former Daystrom property, the location of the call center in Riverstone, the grand opening of Lindstand USA and VIPER at VIR, and the AVID location at Riverstone as well as the hiring of Mike Sexton as Executive Director.

During Kelehar’s tenure, Marriott held its groundbreaking ceremony for Fairfield Inn and ABB expanded, as have Presto, ABB and Lasco.

Directors also recognized Cynthia King, who is the new operations manager for the IDA. She is taking over from Kristy Johnson who leaves the post Sept. 1. King, who last worked for Verizon in their Roanoke office, said she is excited about her new job. She lives in Gretna and was a former clerk with the Pittsylvania County Corrections department.

FREMONT, MI - “Michigan’s first large-scale commercial anaerobic digester”-that is what U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) proudly labeled the Fremont Community Digester (FCD) at its official ground breaking ceremony on a cloudy and cool Friday afternoon, June 24.

Fremont’s mayor James Rynberg went even further, calling the project due to be completed in the summer of 2012 the “nation’s first”.

Regardless of which structures in their planning phases now, ultimately wins the “race” to the finish line and day one of operations, the rural city of Fremont MI, famous for its Gerber baby food, is justifiably proud of the role it will play in converting ag and food waste into energy.

USDA State Director James Turner said, “On behalf of the President and Ag Secretary Vilsack, I thank your team of visionaries and investors for their courage. We are pleased to be your partner,” he added, referring to the $12.8 million loan guarantee secured in large part by the persistence of Sen. Stabenow at the federal level. “This is a great day for Fremont, and a great day for the Unites States.”

Anand Gangadharan, president of project developer Novi Energy in Novi, MI, agreed, calling the USDA loan guarantee the “linchpin that achieved financial closure” to the FCD project. He introduced Sen. Stabenow and praised her “tireless efforts over 5-6 years, her steady level of support. She made me feel welcome in Washington, gave me entry to offices, got me in touch with the right people.”

The head of Novi Energy said that even though the project had suffered ups and downs – even on life support for a bit – that “this is a good thing from the community perspective, and the state, and it makes business sense.” He thanked his family, the Novi Energy team, the implementation team in place, the construction effort, the City of Fremont, the Newaygo County Rural Development, the local Gerber/Nestle family of companies, Consumers Energy, North Central Cooperative, Indus Energy, and Comerica Bank.

Sen. Stabenow explained the digester process in a nutshell: 100,000 tons of food waste per year, instead of taking up space in a landfill, will be converted into 3 megawatts of renewable energy, with bi-products of liquid plant nutrients and compost.

The technology application has been successfully operated in Europe (started in Denmark) for the past two decades.

She said, “We grow things in Michigan – let’s MAKE this HERE! We need to build our agricultural legacy; we need to bring innovation, support rural quality of life, which is a high priority in the next Farm Bill,” referring to the position she has as Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

“We’re on the map,” she declared. “This is one more step in creating our own energy.”

Project investment is approximately $22 million. A 20-year power sales contract has been signed with Consumers Energy and approved by the MI Public Service Commission.

Organic waste feedstock supply contracts are signed with Gerber and five other major regional businesses. Compost and fertilizer generated will be marketed by North Central Cooperative of Fremont.

Architect-Engineer/Constructor is HGA/DeMaria Building Company of southeast Michigan. The FCD project will provide 40 construction jobs, and 6-8 full time equivalent operating jobs.

FCD’s majority owner is INDUS Energy, LLC, an investment group located in Bingham Farms, MI. Managing member is NE Biofuels LLC of Novi. North Central Cooperative of Wabash IN (Fremont Co-Op recently merged with NCC) is a minority owner. Comerica Bank is providing debt financing with the backing of the USDA guarantee already mentioned.

Arvin Shah of INDUS Energy beamed, “This is a great day! FCD will be a template for other projects coming up-it will be a cookie cutter for others planned.”

Rob Zeldenrust, NCC Senior Manager from Fremont, joined Sen. Stabenow in thanking her long-time aide, Mary Judnich.

“Her friendship and representing Debbie here locally has been a huge help.”

Rob talked about how fertilizer for U.S. crops now comes from Canada, Russia, and the Middle East, and that biodigesters will open the door to less reliance on foreign sources.

Novi Energy, which provides energy consulting, management, and infrastructure project development for utility, industrial, institutional, and commercial clients across the U.S. and the world, is working to develop other such anaerobic digester/power projects in the Midwestern U.S.

 Michigan always has unpredictable weather, and Friday’s was exactly what one would expect – unexpected.  I’m sure when they scheduled the groundbreaking for the Fremont community anaerobic digester, NOVI Energy assumed that late June would see warm weather and clear skies.  Instead, the temperature was in the low 60s with scattered rain. This is no doubt why NOVI Energy also put up two large tents. Weather aside, the groundbreaking event was a huge success.

USDA Rural Development State Director for Michigan James J. Turner joined Senator Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and local officials in celebrating the new facility.

Anaerobic digesters are not new in Michigan – many farms have them and USDA Rural Development has taken a leading role in funding them.  What sets Fremont apart is the scale – it will take in the waste of an entire community and the electricity and byproducts it generates will likewise be provided on a wider basis.

The project will be one of the first commercial-scale anaerobic digesters in the United States and will convert organic waste products – including farm and food processing waste – into biogas which is used to generate electricity.  The facility will process more than 100,000 tons of waste annually, reducing landfill usage and improving the quality of agricultural runoff.  In addition, the solid byproducts can be used for soil amendments and cow bedding.

USDA provided a loan guarantee to finance the project, which has a total cost of $22 million.

“Fremont Community Digester is demonstrating firsthand the important role West Michigan agriculture plays in developing new clean energy alternatives, which will create new jobs and protect our environment,” said Senator Stabenow.

More than 120 people were at the event, showing just how investing the community and region is in this exciting new project.

To learn more about USDA renewable energy programs, click here.

FREMONT, Mich., June 24, 2011 – Consumers Energy has contracted to purchase the total renewable energy output produced by the Fremont Community Digester (FCD), which held a ground breaking ceremony today in Fremont.

“This is the first time that Consumers Energy will be buying renewable energy from fuel produced by processed food waste.  This innovative facility is another sign that Michigan’s energy reform law is working by driving investment in renewable energy projects,” said David Ronk, the utility’s director of transactions and resource planning.

The $22 million digester and electric generator is being built by NOVI Energy, Indus Energy and North Central Cooperative, and is expected to begin commercial operation in the summer of 2012.  Agricultural waste products for the FCD will be supplied by Gerber Products, Fremont Cooperative Produce Company and other area agricultural companies.

Consumers Energy will purchase approximately 380,000 megawatt-hours (MWh), or 19,000 MWh per year, of electricity from the FCD over the next 20 years at a cost of $55 million.  The FCD’s electric output is estimated at 3.1 megawatts.

Consumers Energy is moving forward with its renewable energy plan to have  10 percent of the power provided to its 1.8 million customers by 2015 come from Michigan renewable energy projects, as required by the state’s energy reform law.  Consumers Energy is Michigan’s leading supplier of renewable energy.  Currently, about 5 percent of the electricity supplied to the utility’s customers comes from renewable sources.

Consumers Energy, the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE:  CMS), provides natural gas and electricity to 6.8 million of Michigan’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

For more information about Consumers Energy, visit our Website at www.consumersenergy.com

Media Contacts:

Consumers Energy: Dan Bishop, 517.788.2395 or Jeff Holyfield, 517.788.2394
NOVI Energy media contact: Kelly Farr, 248.735.NOVI (6684) x 124, kfarr@novienergy.com

FREMONT, Michigan, June 24, 2011 – “Fremont Community Digester is demonstrating firsthand the important role West Michigan agriculture plays in developing new clean energy alternatives, which will create new jobs and protect our environment,” said U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, to a group of Fremont community supporters and government officials as they broke ground today on the $22 million Fremont Community Digester power plant.

NOVI Energy is developing and managing the 3-megawatt Fremont Community Digester (FCD), which will convert approximately 100,000 tons per year of agricultural waste into electricity, fertilizer and compost for West Michigan area farms.  Senator Stabenow was joined by State Representative Jon Bumstead (R-Newaygo), U.S. Department of Agriculture State Director James Turner, INDUS Energy representative Arvin Shah, North Central Cooperative Senior Manager Rob Zeldenrust and NOVI Energy President Anand Gangadharan, in turning the ceremonial first shovels of dirt for construction of the project, which is scheduled to begin commercial operation in summer 2012.  It is one of the first large-scale anaerobic digesters using co-digestion to be built in the United States.

“This project is a prime example of how agriculture, business and the community can come together to create jobs, improve the environment and manufacture green electricity for decades to come,” said Mr. Gangadharan.  “Equally important, the support at all levels of government, and in particular Senator Stabenow, has been critical in making an innovative, alternative energy project like Fremont Community Digester a reality.”

NOVI Energy closed financing and hired construction contractor DeMaria Building Co. in May.  More than 150 community leaders, government officials, investors and NOVI Energy employees celebrated the start of NOVI Energy’s largest energy infrastructure project to date.

“The City of Fremont welcomes the Fremont Community Digester.  This is a good example of how an entrepreneurial company like NOVI Energy can work with the agricultural community and government to come up with a project that will benefit the community,” said Fremont Mayor James Rynberg.

Representative Bumstead of Michigan’s 100th District said the project will enhance the environment by turning agriculture waste into energy and fertilizer.  “The Fremont Community Digester will generate green electricity for Consumers Energy and help our environment in the process.  We need more innovative investments like this,” said Rep. Bumstead.

FCD will sell its electric output to Consumers Energy under a long term contract that has been approved by the Michigan Public Service Commission.  The project also has signed feedstock supply contracts with Fremont-based Gerber Products Company and several other major regional food processors and agricultural operations.  NOVI Energy is working to develop other such anaerobic digester/power projects in the Midwestern United States.

Fremont Community Digester’s majority owner is INDUS Energy, LLC, an investment group located in Bingham Farms, MI.  North Central Cooperative of Wabash, IN is a minority owner and will market the plant’s fertilizer and compost.  Comerica Bank is providing debt financing for the project with the backing of a debt guaranty awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under its 9003 Biorefinery Assistance Program.

NOVI Energy is an entrepreneurial company that provides a broad range of services in energy consulting, energy management and energy infrastructure project development for utility, industrial, institutional and commercial clients across the United States and the world.