• Lafarge Canada and Holcim US embark on innovative collaboration with Blue Planet to scale technology that can sequester carbon emissions and provide circular economy benefits

TORONTO & CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Holcim North America announced a financial investment in Blue Planet Systems Corporation, to support the development and commercialization of their mineralization technology. Blue Planet’s novel process sequesters carbon emissions into aggregate that can make concrete carbon-negative. Each tonne of Blue Planet’s aggregate can mineralize up to 440 kg of CO2, preventing it from emitting into the atmosphere.

Blue Planet’s CCUS technology provides circular economy benefits in that the mineralization process can consume industrial waste, such as recycled concrete, cement kiln dust (CKD), and slag and produce new aggregate products. This investment represents another significant step toward making Holcim the global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions.

“Being at the forefront of driving sustainable actions in our industry requires continuous innovation and partnerships,” said Toufic Tabbara, Region Head, North America. “Our investment offers a critical opportunity to influence the development of future technologies in the CCUS space while at the same time, we grow our network of like-minded companies with the same strong focus on net zero to amplify global efforts along with other Blue Planet’s investors.”

Holcim North America, comprising Lafarge Canada and Holcim US, and Blue Planet will initiate a multi-year strategic collaboration to help identify potential to use the mineralization technology to further lower the carbon footprint of the companies’ cement, aggregates and concrete operations, with the potential to expand to other operations in the Holcim Group around the world.

“This is an important step for us in North America. Our vision is to transform our St. Constant Plant in Montreal (QC) into a carbon campus that ultimately advances commercialization of mineralization technologies including Blue Planet’s products,” added David Redfern, president & CEO, Lafarge Canada. “We look forward to advancing our Net Zero strategy by leveraging mineralization technology that allows us to use the CO2 from our own cement plants to produce carbon neutral or carbon negative sand and gravel products.”

“By focusing on the aggregate component of concrete, our technology can have a more impactful influence on the embodied carbon in concrete than the traditional focus on reducing cement component alone. Collaborating with Holcim enables us to apply our CO2 mineralization technology to large-scale cement operations where we expect it will more squarely address CO2 emissions,” commented Brent R. Constantz, Ph.D., CEO at Blue Planet.

About Lafarge Canada Inc.

Lafarge is Canada’s largest provider of sustainable construction materials and a member of the global group, Holcim. With 6,000 employees and 350 sites across Canada, our mission is to provide construction solutions and products that build progress for people and the planet. The cities where Canadians live, work, and raise their families along with communities’ infrastructure benefit from the sustainable portfolio provided by Lafarge, consisting of Aggregates, Asphalt and Paving, Cement, Precast Concrete, Ready-Mix Concrete, and Road Construction.

About Holcim US

Holcim builds progress for people and the planet. As a global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions, Holcim is enabling greener cities, smarter infrastructure and improving living standards around the world. With sustainability at the core of its strategy Holcim is becoming a net zero company, with its people and communities at the heart of its success. The company is driving the circular economy as a world leader in recycling to build more with less. Holcim is the company behind some of the world’s most trusted brands in the building sector including ACC, Aggregate Industries, Ambuja Cement, Disensa, Firestone Building Products, Geocycle, Holcim and Lafarge. Holcim is 70,000 people around the world who are passionate about building progress for people and the planet through four business segments: Cement, Ready-Mix Concrete, Aggregates and Solutions & Products.

In the United States, Holcim, includes close to 350 sites in 43 states and employs 7,000 people. Our customers rely on us to help them design and build better communities with innovative solutions that deliver structural integrity and eco-efficiency.

Contacts

Anna Salomao

anna.salomao@lafargeholcim.com

PHILADELPHIA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Doral Renewables LLC (“Doral”) has successfully closed construction project financing for Mammoth North, the first phase of Doral’s broader Mammoth Solar project. Mammoth North is located on 4,500 acres in Starke County, Indiana, in the northwestern region of PJM. The project will be a ground-mounted single axis PV system with 400 MWac of solar power capacity. Doral is also developing the nearby Mammoth Central and Mammoth South projects which, together with Mammoth North, will bring 1.3 GWac of capacity to market as one of the country’s largest collective solar farms.

Deutsche Bank AG, New York Branch acted as sole bookrunner, sole structuring bank and mandated lead arranger for the $392 million financing for the project, which consisted of a $157 million construction-to-term loan facility, a $170 million tax equity bridge loan, and a $65 million letter of credit facility. Bayerische Landesbank, New York Branch and National Bank of Canada acted as Lead Managers with Banco de Sabadell, S.A, Miami Branch, Comerica Bank, a Texas banking association, Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A., New York Branch, and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company rounding out the syndicate for the debt and letter of credit facilities. The closing was completed simultaneously with Doral’s signing of a nearly $175 million tax equity commitment for the project from Bank of America N.A. Marathon Capital Markets, LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor for Doral.

Mammoth North will generate energy and renewable energy certificate revenue via its long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with AEP Energy Partners, Inc., a subsidiary of American Electric Power (Nasdaq: AEP), one of the largest investor-owned utilities in the U.S., providing AEP’s consumers with clean energy. Doral expects that the facility will power approximately 75,000 Midwestern homes once in operation.

“We are proud to support Doral with this financing and to have partnered with their world class development team and furthered DB’s commitment to Sustainable Financing,” said Jeremy Eisman, head of Infrastructure & Energy Financing and Structuring at Deutsche Bank.

“Doral is thrilled to have collaborated with Deutsche Bank to raise this important piece of capital which will enable us to bring Mammoth North to commercial operation as expected in 2023,” said Evan Speece, Chief Financial Officer at Doral Renewables LLC. “We look forward to continuing to work with our financing partners to bring clean energy from the other stages of Mammoth, and the rest of our growing pipeline, to customers throughout the United States.”

About Doral Renewables LLC

Doral is a U.S. company owned by Doral Renewable Energy Resources Group (TASE:DORL, “Doral Group”), a publicly traded Israeli renewable energy company, Migdal Group, Israel’s largest insurance company and pension manager, and U.S. members. Doral is developing an 11 GWac wind, solar, and storage portfolio across 20 states, eight electricity markets and covering approximately 100,000 acres of land. It has over $2 billion in long-term wholesale power purchase agreements with U.S. customers.

About Doral Group

Doral Group is a publicly-traded company on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in Israel (DORL) and is a global renewable energy leader, holding hundreds of long-term revenue-generating renewable energy assets. Doral Group is active, inter alia, in Israel, Europe, and the United States. Doral Group is also emerging as a worldwide leader in the field of solar + storage solutions, following its win of Israel’s biggest solar + storage tenders to build approximately 750 MWdc + 1,400MWh of storage facilities in Israel.

Contacts

Evan Speece

Chief Financial Officer

espeece@doral-llc.com