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EverGen Infrastructure Corp
XTSX:EVGN

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EverGen Infrastructure Corp
XTSX:EVGN
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Price: 2 CAD Market Closed
Updated: May 21, 2024

Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2022-Q4

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Operator

Thanks for joining the EverGen Infrastructure Q4 and fiscal year 2022 earnings call. With me today, I have CEO, Chase Edgelow, COO, Mischa Zajtmann as well as CFO, Sean Hennessy. The team is going to be running through a brief presentation, and then we will open up the floor to any Q&A. [Operator Instructions] I would like to remind everyone that the presentation may include forward-looking information, and you can refer to the disclaimer for forward-looking information in the [indiscernible] as well as in the presentation itself. With that, I'm going to pass it over to Chase.

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

Great. Thanks, Victoria. We'll just put slides up on the screen here and start running through the presentation. Great. So hopefully, everyone can see this now.

Just for a brief introduction for anybody who's new to EverGen or new to joining our calls, we're renewable natural gas platform that was established to be a developer, owner, operator and consolidator of renewable natural gas infrastructure in Canada. Really, what that means is we operate facilities that take in 3 types of organic waste, manure agricultural waste, commercial food waste and residential food waste. And we process that. We capture the methane emissions, so we're carbon-negative. And we sell that methane as renewable natural gas to utilities like FortisBC. That's the basic business model.

We're now established with owned assets in 3 regions across Canada. We're a leading consolidator in the space. And we're in the middle of construction on 2 projects, which we'll talk about, which will take us to 240,000 gigajoules and $8 million to $10 million of EBITDA. Those will be done construction as we -- at the end of Q2 this year. And then we've got a funded portfolio of projects that then take us to 420,000 gigajoules. We're fully funded.

We've got excess liquidity of $25 million of undrawn credit facilities, our existing balance sheet and free cash flow to fund us forward. And then finally, I go what we're really excited about is the opportunity in the space.

We're in the early innings of the renewable natural gas build-out. This is 1 of the few drop-in fuels that lead the energy transition and is highly sought after, and we're seeing a number of tailwinds that are going to lead to explosive growth for our company. In terms of this call and looking back on 2022 and Q4, we've -- there was a number of milestones that we achieved. One that we announced earlier was the $31 million credit facility that we put in place with Roynat subsidiary of Scotiabank and Export Development Canada, that facility builds on an existing credit facility that we had with Roynat, which is above $6 million drawn. Sean will touch on that in a minute.

And funds the execution of the projects under construction as well as our growth projects. The Second major milestone for us was really moving from a developer and operator to also a constructor of these projects. So we commissioned our GrowTEC expansion, our Phase 1 R&D expansion project, and we'll touch on that as well as we move forward through the presentation.

Looking forward, we'll come back to the milestones that we see in the upcoming months, but there's a number of key milestones that are going to be game changers for our company as we move through the following months in the next quarter. And so I'll turn it over to Sean Hennessy, who is our CFO, to walk through our Q4 results.

S
Sean Hennessy
executive

Great. Thanks for that, Chase, and welcome to everyone for our -- to our Q4 and year end 2022 update call. So in Q4, we announced break and ground at Fraser Valley biogas for the expansion project, and there's been a shift in management's focus and to the execution of the project, while at the same time, managing cash flows from our existing operations. And during the quarter, we continued to progress our investments into both Fraser Valley biogas and to Pacific Coast Renewables formerly known as Net Zero Abbotsford, with approximately $3.7 million of CapEx invested into those facilities split almost evenly between the 2. We ended the year with a strong cash position just shy of $9 million. And as Chase touched on previously. In January of this year, we announced a $31 million debt facility, which provides for additional liquidity of $25 million.

And we expect to start drawing on this strategically during Q2 2023 to fund our Fraser Valley Biogas expansion project. Another milestone that I want to touch on is the insurance. So during our call in Q3, we gave some guidance on where we expected to land with insurance, and we were successful in negotiating the settlement of certain of our insurance claims towards the end of Q4. At year-end, we recorded a receivable of about $1.75 million. And during Q1, we received $1.55 million of insurance proceeds.

So there's about $200,000 outstanding from the claims at year end. This was a favorable outcome for EverGen. And as I touched on previously, it's came in above what we had previously guided. We still have a couple of claims open for both facilities relating to our property damage, device from our insurers list to keep these open for the term of that were insured -- that we're allowed to make claims for, which is 2 years from the floods. And for Q1, we're not seeing any material expenses come in to date,[indiscernible] it's less than $100,000 of R&M expenses, which we would expect to see towards the end of the year.

Moving on to revenue. So in Q4 2021, revenues were unseasonably high that was as a result of the influx of organic waste as a result of the floods [ spin ] during the end of 2021 to our processing facilities at both Sea to Sky Soils and Pacific Coast renewables. Q4 is more run rate. We're seeing an increase in tonnage coming into some of the facilities, and we expect to continue to build on those tonnages and increase the amount of organic waste that we're taking in because we still have capacity at some of our facilities.

But well, I mean, the key point here as well is that the reduction in revenue was really offset by a reduction in operating costs and G&A. Obviously, with the floods in 2021, we had higher repairs and maintenance costs, which we didn't incur during Q4 2022 and we're seeing our G&A start to come down now as we've been building out the team, the in-house team rather than a lot of outsourcing to consultants. Moving on to the next slide, please. So here, we -- what we're trying to get across is that after fully funding our projects at both Fraser Valley Biogas and GrowTec. We expect to have excess liquidity of just under $7 million.

Following the completion of these facilities, we still have $16 million of debt facility of an undrawn debt facility available for funding the Pacific Coast renewables upgrade project. And we're still expecting to receive grant proceeds on which we should be able to make an announcement or provide further clarity on at a later date. And then obviously, once our once GrowTEC Phase I and Fraser Valley Biogas, Phase 1 are operational, we're going to see a substantial increase in operating cash flows through tripling our gas production and almost doubling the capacity that we can take in an organic waste across all of our facilities.

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

So I think in summary, the year ending 2022 is really a setup year for us. Getting prepared for the build-out and construction that we had towards the end of the year, and we'll have through Q1 and Q2 and then obviously, as we have built out capacity that's significantly increased from our historical operations, there's 2 effects to that. One is, obviously, our EBITDA will step up, but we'll also have a flatter base of renewable natural gas production. So less seasonal variability versus previous years. So that's really been the focus of the team is delivering GrowTEC and Fraser Valley biogas which is on track and on budget.

And I think the key there again is that once fully ramped up, we've got $8 million to $10 million of EBITDA a capacity just from the assets that will be done in construction in Q2. Where that looks relative to our current valuation or market cap, $47 million with a net debt position of net cash about $3 million, so $44 million enterprise value on that $8 million to $10 million of EBITDA just from the first phase of build-out versus where we're seeing single assets transact in the 10 to 12x range. So significant price upside just after achieving our first couple of milestones this year, and then we think a ton of upside beyond that.

So I think at this point, we've covered the historical results. We'll spend a bit of time just updating on the rest of the business. And I think what's really important right now is -- has been with the increased focus on the energy transition some of the shine coming off of new technologies or the hype around hydrogen as an example, what we've seen is a lot of interest in renewable natural gas from utilities. So when we first IPO-ed, we talked about the gold standard offtake agreements that Fortis was supplying in the space and that we expect to see the same thing from other utilities.

We're now seeing that 1.5 years later, a number of large utilities that are competing head to head as well as end users that need to decarbonize are signing long-term offtake agreements as well for renewable natural gas. And all of that is a significant tailwind for our future projects. In terms of other tailwinds, maybe turn it over to Mischa and we can talk through some of the other tailwinds in the sector.

M
Mischa Zajtmann
executive

Yes, definitely. Thanks, Chase. So I mean, I think we're -- what's going to happened in the last 12 months is we've had a lot of positive momentum in this space in general. We've seen increased diversion, organic diversion from landfills, which has had a positive effect on tipping fees for the organic waste that we received, which essentially is the energy source that drives our business. And as Chase mentioned, we're seeing similar positive effects on the offtake side as well.

We're south of the border. There's been a lot of momentum with the inflation reduction at and the tax credits associated with that. We've -- we're actively looking at projects south of the border, and we expect positive results from those initiatives as well. In Canada, we're continuing to pursue a lot of grant funding opportunities. And we expect -- although the recent budget announcement didn't include an IRA equivalent tax credit for biofuels and biogases.

There was a mention that it will be considered as and prioritized in future readings. So the industry as a whole. I know the Biogas Association is pushing card and lobbying hard for biogas inclusion in the next in the next budget, and we remain bullish on that front as well.

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

Do you want to keep going on the current portfolio?

M
Mischa Zajtmann
executive

Yes. So as far as where we're at today, we started out as sort of a local lower mainland Vancouver focused platform with our 3 projects in British Columbia. We've now expanded essentially created a national platform in Canada, which is really exciting for us, obviously, with GrowTEC and our Project Radius acquisitions. And we're also looking closely at projects in Quebec, additional opportunities on the prairies. So there really is a lot of runway to get to that sort of near-term goal and target of 2 million [ Abbot ] 2 million GJs per year of RNG in our portfolio.

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

I think Mischa is maybe downplaying a little bit. I think we've been really successful at consolidating in the space relative to others. We've now shown that we can take existing facilities, expand them, upgrade them effectively. And I think that's really a valued skill. A number of the projects that we see are in what we would say, close to last mile of development. So there's been a couple of smaller developers that have been working to get a project up and running for a couple of years. It still needs significant design work.

So that's where we come in. And then from a funding perspective, providing capital to smaller developers that are near the finish line. And what that does for us is it gives us projects like Project Radius that are well advanced, and we're able to get into for a very reasonable acquisition price, and that drives long-term value creation.

In terms of the current operating portfolio, as we've -- I think we've touched on the expansion plans, Pacific Coast Renewables, key here is really as we move forward, and we've applied for a significant quantum of grant capital here I think that will be a real catalyst, a positive result from grant funding towards that project will be a real catalyst for us, and we'll provide an update on the development time line associated with PCR at that time. Fraser Valley Biogas, we've made significant progress on construction, 60% complete. And with that, I think what we've seen is there's been a number of opportunities for us to optimize the project as we go through template our process so that we're -- as we're expanding other facilities that process is the same.

And from a completion standpoint, we now have all of the equipments, the major pieces of equipment are either on site or at fabrication shop substantially complete. We've got piping that is being completed and ready to ship that will be pledged together on site and the majority of the civil work has been completed on site. So that project from our perspective is on track for Q2 completion, and we'll then move into producing expanded RNG volumes.

And then GrowTEC I think, has been a real success story in terms of coming in and being able to get access to an operational facility but also step rate into an improvement project. So there with commissioning that we completed in Q1, moving into production in Q2 and then ramping up production is the goal with the first phase and our focus and then we've got an expansion project Phase 2, which will expand the facility to 140,000 gigajoules that we're working on engineering, it's in the engineering phase at this point, and we'll have an update later this year.

Sea to Sky Soils finally, I think our strategy has always been to have a hub approach to facilities. So to be regionally impactful to the feedstock market, where we're working with municipalities and commercial waste organic waste suppliers or producers that are looking for processing. There, we've been successful and we talked about in our press release an additional 10,000 tons of additional contracts that we've won there.

So I think a key message there is that we're working hard to build out our capacity as quickly as possible. There still remains a significant gap in region for processing infrastructure that's of the quality that we're building at Fraser Valley, Sea to sky soils and Pacific Coast Renewables. Now when you sum all of those projects together, the 4 projects on the previous page, that is our core expansion project EBITDA of $13 million. And then we've got incremental R&D upside, which is from incremental volumes, but also taking advantage of the spot market pricing that we're seeing. So that's an incremental EBITDA upside from the built out infrastructure that we'll have at our 3 core projects.

And then incremental organics processing upside is similar. We benchmark our EBITDA projections on a utilization factor in the facility that has incremental upside. So we can take in additional organics as well as taking spot tons when there's events like the flooding events that we had previously. And there's -- there's been animal fatalities that need to be processed. Those types of spot tonnages can be really lucrative. So we want to leave a buffer in our facilities to take that type of waste.

And then where our focus has been in terms of future growth is on the incremental near-term pipeline upside, and we'll touch on that as it pertains to our project pipeline and project Radius. Now from a multiple perspective, this is based on some of the peer trading averages and as well as some of the transaction multiples. What we've also seen is significant multiples paid for single assets in Canada, and that's really what we're focused on delivering as a portfolio of low-risk contracted assets that deserve the multiples that you see on this page, and that really drives a re-rate and valuation as we bring those assets online.

The other interesting story from our perspective when you look at the market, there are a number of the players have been have pursued a private model or where they are public, you can see anybody that's got significant EBITDA. EBITDA starts to have a really attractive multiple in a large-scale portfolio. So with our line of sight to $13 million of EBITDA from our core projects. We're moving into the other halves where you've got substantial EBITDA and large-scale valuations that are applied to these types of platforms that -- like the platform that our team has built at EverGen.

One important step in that in our project pipeline that we mentioned earlier was Project Radius. So Project Radius was a smaller developer working -- a project based project that we farmed into where we acquired a 50% stake in last year. It added a new jurisdiction for us in Ontario. So part of our strategy of moving and consolidating across Canada. At the time that we acquired our 50% interest, the project was in that last mile development. They're needed to be about $1 million, $1.5 million spent on detailed engineering to get to cost certainty and take the project to what we call final investment decisions or so it's ready for construction.

We've now completed that step, and we're working with we've engaged an adviser, as in Northeast Renewables, our partner to secure project-level debt and equity for this project. And we think there's going to be really strong interest in that expect to have an update for the market towards the middle of the year, early Q3, where we can talk a little bit about what that looks like. But based on what we've seen with other developers that have projects similar to Project Radius. We're seeing CapEx being 100% carry. We're seeing operators like EverGen that will remain as the operator on the facility and get a carried interest in the back end.

So I think that's -- our expectation here is that we're going to remain involved in the project, but our funding will be supplied by a larger party that's really looking to get access to an RNG project. And I think this is just a real high-level version of what we've seen happening in the space. I think with 2021, we were one of the first companies to go down the public path. And I think part of the reason for that is we really believe there is an ability to consolidate smaller projects that way.

We raised about $60 million of equity. At the same time that others went public, and there was a number of equity raises and the larger players were just starting to look at the space. So I think Fortis was obviously providing offtakes and was very supportive of the RNG sector. It was probably just a learning phase for a lot of the other strategics and utilities in 2021. And then that really shifted towards the end of 2022 and into 2023. We've seen a lot of consolidation, a lot of investment by larger entities into smaller, more nimble RNG focused platforms like Evergen and really, I think the rationale for that is these are relatively small projects.

They involve gas production, but it's renewable gas production and it's derived from waste. So it's a real -- it's a different business to what they traditionally operate, so their choice entry into the market has been through acquisition or through partnership.

So with that in mind, our initiatives to continue to add projects, grow our pipeline continue to be a real focus for us. So guiding jurisdictions, as Mischa talks about, both across Canada, but also looking at select projects where we've got a competitive advantage in the U.S. is part of that. And I think simple math on this is our initial build-out of GrowTEC and Fraser Valley take us to just under 0.25 million gigajoules per year. All of our core projects, including the first phase of Project Radius takes us to north of $1 million. And then just what we have in our near-term pipeline is a 2 million gigajoule per year growth profile.

So that's the $50 million to $60 million of R&D revenue if we're converting all of those projects. And there will be projects that we don't convert into operation, but we've got a number of other pipeline projects behind those that we would advance the highest quality projects to that phase. From an ESG perspective, I think we've covered this in a lot of different ways. We're a company that's dedicated to solving 2 key problems that we think will change the future for Canada, both from a waste perspective and also from an energy uses perspective.

And I think I want to leave a bit of time for questions. I know we've -- we've gone a little bit over from what we were hoping to do. But Mischa, Sean and I are available as well if there's any follow-up questions that don't get answered on the call, and I'll turn it back over to Victoria.

Operator

Thanks, Chase. So quite a few questions. So let's just start at the top and that First question, can you provide additional details on the GrowTEC Phase 2 expansion? What is the incremental EBITDA expected to be generated, cost estimate and anticipated timing of completion.

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

So we're currently undergoing our front-end engineering and design for Phase II so at this point, there's not a lot of additional information to provide there. Our target is to add about $2 million of incremental EBITDA net to EverGen. And from a CapEx standpoint, it's too early to come up with an update there. But our expectation is that we'll complete that engineering work and be able to provide an update towards the end of Q2, early Q3. And with that, we'll be moving very quickly into construction.

Operator

Okay. Any update on when you expect Pacific Coast renewables to be permitted.

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

On Pacific Coast Renewables, I think our permitting team that we established after the flooding events and the delays that we saw there has been really successful in getting a in front of regulators, and there's still no better clarity on when we expect to receive that update. I think we will -- we will provide an update around the grant funding outcome as well that should provide more clarity there. I think it's safe to say at this point, though, that we're looking at construction from our perspective in 2024, and that EBITDA contribution will be in 2024.

Operator

And then what regulatory approvals remain outstanding specifically before construction can begin. And is there any prep work you can do today that would help shorten the construction time line later?

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

Yes. Mischa, do you want to touch on that?

M
Mischa Zajtmann
executive

Yes. Yes. So in terms of the regulatory approvals, a lot of that work is in process. The primary one is getting the Ministry of Environment approval. And then concurrent with that, we're looking to get city approval which is -- which we're getting in front of the right committees and it's more so just like an administrative logjam within the city that we're waiting on there. But all of our dialogue and feedback. The city has been positive. And then the last step is getting ALC approval. And ALC approval, that's the Agricultural Land Commission, and that approval should follow lockstep with city approval.

So the city of [indiscernible] has like an agricultural committee and their sole purpose to sort of be a gatekeeper for the ALC so that whatever they recommend and present to the ALC is sort of in line with something that they should recommend and then as far as the advanced work advanced construction, we are doing some advanced construction there. We've done some concrete bunkering to our facility to sort of up to ensure that we're operating at the highest standards of Compost operations.

And we've also done some work on wastewater treatment there in advance of our RNG development.

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

I think part of the rationale for the name change as well is really differentiating our facilities in the lower main layer in and around Vancouver, for those that are not from the region from others from the substandard facilities that take some of the waste today. So it's an exercise that in combination with where we land on grant proceeds and what we as mentioned on the existing infrastructure upgrades that we're doing in advance of the project.

We expect to be able to put forth a really strong project relative to what we're seeing in the space for waste management and processing options. So we're trying to position the facility to be very competitive long term and strengthen the contracted profile of the feedstock at the same time.

M
Mischa Zajtmann
executive

And I think a lot of -- I just had one thing there, some of the perceived delay around that project I think has given us the opportunity to really reset relationships with the Ministry of Environment and the city. And I think now I know that the minister environment considers us almost like a poster child in the region for combos operations, which took some work and a lot of that goes to our team. And the city of [ Alser ] is really -- has become very, very supportive of this project and a bit of a champion for us. And I think that they sort of see the vision. They see the opportunity to sort of create this kind of energy park in the region that no 1 else has right now. So I think although we've had some delays at this project from a permitting perspective, we're on a much better footing.

And long term, I think we're it will be beneficial to the project and the company as a whole.

Operator

Okay. And could you please elaborate on the potential need for additional digestate storage at Fraser Valley Biogas what would determine if you needed to do this? And when would you likely know.

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

Yes. So this is really around what is an operating cost for hauling digestate and storing digestate off of site and transferring that to capital investment that lowers the OpEx for us and allows us to increase volume. So this is something that, I believe, Sean, we're targeting a decision Q3 or Q4 and if we move forward with that, it's to maximize EBITDA long term.

Operator

Could you provide thoughts on the pricing for tipping fees right now for feedstock, both on a spot basis as well as on long-term contracts.

M
Mischa Zajtmann
executive

Yes. Yes, and I think we touched on this a bit, but we're seeing a lot of -- we're seeing a lot of positive momentum on the sort of where feedstock pricing and tipping fees are trending. In Ontario, you're getting contract secured -- long-term contracts secured at north of $150, $160 a ton and we're seeing a similar dynamic, not quite that high pricing in BC, but we're seeing a similar dynamic in terms of more waste of more organic waste and less permitted facilities to receive that waste. So for example, in Abbotsford, our contract is due for renewal imminently here, and we expect that pricing will be reflected accordingly.

Operator

Okay. And then on the RNG side, would you be able to provide an update on pricing that you're seeing in the spot market as well as what you're seeing for long-term contracts and if it's continuing to trend higher.

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

Yes. I think we touched on this a little bit. The original market was somewhat set by Fortis' long-term -- the contracted market set by Fortis' contracts in the BC Utilities Commission's price caps associated with that. And that for a long time, that was $30 has stepped up a little bit and I think steps up again on April 1 for new contracts. So that sort of long-term utility offtake option depending on the project and depending on the carbon intensity with someone like Fortis has continued to escalate. We see similar things in Quebec, as an example, I think they've announced they're capable of paying anywhere from $25 to $45 a gigajoule for gas.

I think in both cases, pipeline connected in North America. So projects can sell into different markets regardless of geography with some logistics involved. But regardless of geography, you can sell to different utilities across North America. The Californian market, the sort of spot market that was based on LCFS and RIN pricing has come off quite a bit from last year, and that's really based on the nature of that carbon market and a supply/demand imbalance that they have.

There's only so much gas that can be sold in California, and it's capped is a cap mechanism. So that -- that market is probably the one that's come down versus all the long-term contract markets that we focused on have continued to escalate in order to they're competing head-to-head for projects like ours to deliver gas. So we're seeing not just utilities, but strategics offer long-term contracts with pricing floors that are north of $25 a gigajoule in some cases, higher than that. And I'd say that's probably up 20% or 30% from 2 years ago.

Operator

Okay. Would you be able to speak to the type and size of projects you're looking at in the U.S. and how advanced these projects are?

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

Yes, I'll touch on that. I think the -- we've at any given time, we've got a number of BD activities where we're pursuing both greenfield development projects and the last mile development partnerships with smaller developers. So I think we've got a handful of discussions that fall into those 2 buckets on projects in the U.S. where we want to compete in the U.S. is away from the traditional markets. So the capital that was raised in 2021 in the U.S. for U.S. projects was focused on delivering projects that could take advantage of really high LCFS and RIN pricing.

And those types of projects were typically dairy farm projects, so very specific. And a lot of capital, a lot of platforms are really focused on dairy projects. We've always been I guess, more interested in mixed waste projects because you've got a diversifying feedstock, you get some tipping fees. And that tended to lend itself to working with the utilities on long-term contracts versus trying to take advantage of the spot market.

And because of that, our focus in the U.S. has been projects that don't fit into the LCFS and RIN market as well, where we've got a competitive advantage with Canadian offtakers to come in and develop a project in a way that a U.S. counterparty might not be able to have the same access. And secondly, the skill set of doing a mixed waste digester project is different than a dairy digester project. So applying our knowledge and capabilities from Canada into projects that are similar in the U.S.

Operator

Okay. Would you be able to restate the expected completion date for Fraser Valley biogas?

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

Yes. So 60% complete is the number that we had in the press release, really the amount of civil work, major equipment package work that's been done is a lot further advanced than that. And what remains the most of the scope is bolting everything together and installing it on site. So that is expected to occur in Q2. So having the facility online with the expansion flowing gas to the expanded facility by the end of Q2 is our expectation at this time.

Operator

Okay. Given the capital-intensive nature of RNG expansions, how are you managing inflation risks? Have you seen cost pressures start to ease with elevated interest rates and a slowdown in the housing market?

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

Sean, do you want to take this one?

S
Sean Hennessy
executive

Yes, sure. So I mean most -- all of our budgets have for the expansion projects to carry a large contingency as well, which inflation risk is built into those who typically usually include contingencies, 30% plus and our position for Fraser Valley biogas as an example, is that we're still expecting to come in within the budget and the amounts that we included in the press release. We haven't seen too much inflation in terms of cost pressures with CapEx that would be ordering because a lot for our existing projects, a lot of the major pieces of equipment were procured some time ago.

Really, the increases that we see is from some of the services provided, which is across the board with a lot of consulting areas is the we're seeing teams are seeing increases in consulting costs because of inflation, but with all indicators from the Bank of Canada recently, we're expecting inflation to ease it has started to ease already. And so we do expect those increases from previous periods to start to drop off to normalize.

Operator

And then what are some of the key milestones and catalysts that you guys are expecting over the next 3 to 6 months?

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

Yes, great question. I'll go back a couple of slides here. So I think the key milestones, catalysts for us will be flowing gas at GrowTEC so we've completed commissioning. We're going through the last bit of utility red tape to produce gas at GrowTEC but the facility is running on recycle. So we're confident that we'll start to ramp up shortly. So we'll talk about that. Also at GrowTEC maybe not in the next couple of months, but shortly thereafter, Phase 2 expansion discussion about what that looks like at.

Fraser Valley Biogas, obviously, the big focus for our team at the moment is delivering that project that's under construction. So that is an imminent update for us, just continual project updates. Executing the long-term offtake agreement at Fraser Valley biogas, we're producing under an interim agreement and finalizing the long-term offtake there. I think I mentioned part of the reason for that earlier has to do with the timing and the increase in pricing that we're seeing.

Project Radius for us, that's the financing path for that with the type of partnership that we enter into is going to be really the gating item for us to move into construction. So we'd expect that is late Q2, early Q3 announcement where we're bringing in a partner at Project Radius depending on how those discussions go. And then the grant funding that we've applied for, we expect a decision on $10.5 million of the $20-plus million of grant funding that we've applied for. And with a positive result there, I think that gives us a lot of tailwinds at PCR for putting together a really a stronger project than we originally had as well and a project that requires very little equity funding, which allows us to accelerate our pipeline.

So I think the other catalyst for us is continuing to add additional projects, moving them from the development stage in our pipeline or early-stage negotiations into definitive agreements. And we expect to have some interesting projects to tell the market about in the coming months as well.

Operator

At Project Radius, what extent do you guys think you'll be retaining a carried interest in the project assuming that it's fully financed at the project level.

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

Yes, I think the template for that is looking to the other types of deals that have been done, that have been announced with the [indiscernible] and Shells and BPs of the world coming in and funding development projects. Radius has the size and scale to attract world-class partner. And so we're active in discussions, and we'll see where those end up. Our -- looking at those other types of farm-in deals that guys have done where you've got a larger strategic accessing a project like Radius that has multiple phases.

And it could be a significant spend for them. It doubles in the details, but a carried interest for a minority position in the project, I think that would probably be in the context of sub-25% of the project increasing up to 50% under positive conditions is what we've seen in those other deals. In some cases, that's a complete acquisition of the entity. And in this case, I think what we're looking for with Radius is that we would retain operatorship and we would bring in a financial partner and so that's the discussions that will be in progress over the next couple of months.

And so far, it's -- there's a lot of interest in the projects. And both on the offtake side and also on the capital development side.

Operator

And then what are your expectations for government support to help finance project radius or even expectations for government support with some of your other projects?

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

I do touch on that. I mean from a radius perspective, we're not assuming any grant funding, all of that will be upside. But I think maybe Mischa, you can touch on just the rest of the portfolio and the activities that we've got underway.

M
Mischa Zajtmann
executive

Yes. So we've got multiple grant applications out. And when we model these projects, we assume limited to no grant funding. So the grand funding really is an upside scenario for us. We know that there is obviously with the clean fuel funds in Canada and some additional sort of agricultural based grant funding opportunities and a lot of capital out there for projects like GrowTEC and Radius, Fraser Valley biogas as well. And we know and we know that a decision on [indiscernible] as is imminent for that sizable clean fuels funds grant.

So we're quite optimistic about our ability to access grant funding in the near term and in the long term, as these projects get developed.

Operator

And then you guys speak to your project pipeline of 2 million gigajoules per year. So how far are you guys kind of along in advancing some of this pipeline? And when do you guys anticipate seeing project announcements.

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

Yes. So the -- with our active near-term pipeline, we are -- these are projects -- it'd be a mix of greenfield projects and partnership projects. On the greenfield side, what we want to do, we want to get the project to a point where we know with certainty that it's going to be going forward before we put together a detailed project announcement for a couple of reasons. One of the most important one is that we want to maintain a competitive advantage in that region where we're putting a project together.

So I think from our perspective, there's a couple of projects that are getting close to that line where we've secured the majority of the 5 key elements that we look for in developing a project being land and a regulatory path to permit a facility, offtake agreements feedstock agreements and cost certainty knowing that we've got an economic project. So I think we're getting pretty close on a couple that would be in the greenfield bucket.

And on the acquisition side, I think we've got active discussions with a couple of smaller developers that are progressing. And I think similarly, we'd expect to be able to talk about a couple of those projects if everything goes according to plan by the end of the year.

Operator

And then just lastly, on the insurance side of things. How much longer do you guys have to be able to submit claims? And are you guys anticipating further reimbursements in Q1 and beyond?

S
Sean Hennessy
executive

Yes, I'm happy to take that one. So we have until November of this year to continue to submit claims or bring expenses incurred for 2 years following the flooding events. We don't expect any further proceeds during Q1 as we announced that we received already received $1.55 million but we have about $200,000 still outstanding. And obviously, any additional costs that come in, we would obviously be putting those forward as part of a future claim.

Operator

Okay. There's no more questions at this time. So Chase, maybe I'll pass it over to you for just some final words.

C
Chase Edgelow
executive

Yes. Thanks, Victoria. I think I really appreciate all the questions, support for our business. I think we're really excited about where we've positioned EverGen and the progress that we've made on our 2 major construction projects underway, which ultimately leads to long-term reoccurring cash flow and EBITDA for our business that has those near-term catalysts, and we expect to be able to step into that growth phase here in the coming quarter and towards the end of the year.

We'll have a really substantial amount of free cash flow for the business, and that allows us to accelerate our pipeline, which ultimately, we're seeing pipelines like we have being valued at predevelopment pipelines being valued significantly by the majors in the space right now. So how we take advantage of that. I think Project Radius will be a great test for us on that, and we're really excited for what's coming in the next quarter.

Operator

Okay. Thanks so much, and thanks, everyone, for joining today. If you have any additional questions, you can always e-mail them to me at victoria@cap.ca, and we'll get them answered for you. Thanks, everyone.

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