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 Company
Profile:
Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc. (AEHI) is a
unique corporation founded by former senior executives in the utility and
finance industries specifically to address the mounting ‘energy crisis’
affecting the US economy and standard of living today. A key objective for
AEHI is decreasing US dependence on foreign sources of power, which are
progressively proving less reliable and more political in their influence.
Another goal is to reduce energy costs to consumers by supplying low cost
electricity; provide technology to construct buildings and homes without
energy bills; improve grid reliability with large base load plants; and
create much-needed jobs.
AEHI’s primary initiative is construction of a proposed nuclear power plant
in Payette County, Idaho. AEHI will be at the forefront of this opportunity
as the first publicly traded independent nuclear generating company in the
U.S. and will easily outperform large nuclear and fossil type utilities with
their inherent bureaucracy.
AEHI additionally seeks small green energy companies for acquisition and the
creation of new ones. By providing superior management and networking skills
to expand their markets, AEHI assists acquisitions with growth and
development. The company will continue to look for opportunities for
expansion through the purchase of additional sources of eco-efficient power.
Through the ownership of existing power generation sources, AEHI will assist
in expediting the regulatory approval for its construction of new energy
sources, including joint ventures to produce reactors and nuclear components
as well as other energy sources.
 Don Gillispie, President, CEO and Chairman of Alternate Energy Holdings,
Inc.
Mr. Gillispie has over 45 years experience in construction, operations and
maintenance of nuclear power plants. He is widely considered one of the more
experienced senior executives still working full time to help the United
States reemerge as the world’s leader in nuclear power.
Gillispie received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at
Clemson University, where he graduated cum laude. He later completed the
senior executive program at the MIT Sloan School of business.
His real interest in nuclear power began in the military. He completed the
Navy Nuclear Power School, became a nuclear operator, and served aboard the
SSBN, Francis Scott Key.
Since that time, Gillispie has served in a number of positions in the
nuclear industry. He worked on the startup of Beaver Valley Unit 1 in
Shippingport, Pennsylvania. He worked on the construction and startup of
Duke Energy’s first three nuclear units at Oconee Nuclear Station in South
Carolina. While working for Tennessee Valley Authority, Gillispie was
involved in the construction, startup and operations of three nuclear
facilities. And while working with the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations
he was a manager of engineering and director of restart respectfully for the
turnaround of the Rancho Seco and Pilgrim nuclear power plants.
Gillispie helped found a cornerstone program for the Institute of Nuclear
Power Operations (INPO), which is the safety watchdog to all U.S. nuclear
utilities. He also helped startup the Nuclear Management Corporation (NMC),
a nuclear operating company in Wisconsin, which operated up to eight nuclear
power plants with 5,000 employees. Incidentally, NMC was awarded best in
class by Forbes.com in 2001. And as owner of Grace Glens, a private
nuclear-technical management consulting company, Gillispie consulted with
some of the largest nuclear utilities in the United States, advising senior
executives on commercial nuclear power operations.
As part of a three-man executive team, Gillispie assisted in overseeing the
2007 reopening of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant unit three in Alabama before
moving to Idaho to be near AEHI's first nuclear project. Its reopening was
attended by President George W. Bush. |
Clean Energy
Nuclear
(AEHI.PK)
Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc.
911 West Winding Creek Drive, Suite 150
Eagle, ID 83616
Phone: 208-939-9311
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Interview conducted by:
Bud Wayne, Editorial Executive,
CEOCFOinterviews.com,
Published – December 3, 2010
CEOCFO: Mr. Gillispie, would you give us a little history of Alternate
Energy Holdings and tell us your vision?
Mr. Gillispie: I had retired as an energy executive a number of years
ago and I had worked mostly in the nuclear energy area. I was a little
frustrated that the country had not relaunched nuclear power plants in the
United States. I went to a conference that I use to go to when I worked more
actively; it was a CEO conference for the nuclear utilities CEOs and it is
held annually in Atlanta, Georgia. In late 2004, I attended that and I saw
some old friends, which was part of the reason that I went, but I wanted to
ask a silly question of these CEOs and Chief Nuclear Officers. I wanted to
know when we were going to build a new nuclear plant, because we hadn’t
built one since before Three Mile Island. I felt that we should be back
doing it again because it was a good technology, it would help with global
warming, it was low cost energy and it was reliable. Well the consistent
answer among the utilities, which tend to be somewhat conservative in their
thinking, is that thy though that it is a good idea, but they didn’t want to
be first. They wanted someone else to take the flack.
Then after the first of the year in 2005, I started thinking, why couldn’t I
form a company and see if I can’t help get the nuclear renaissance started.
So I got hold of some like minded colleagues, the past head of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, past CEOs and presidents of utilities and
institutions in the nuclear industry. The agreed with me and said that they
would join with me and do this. So we formed a company that was private in
2005, but we realized that it was difficult to raise much money as a private
company. So we took it public as a reverse merger in September 2006 and
started on our march. Initially, we were interested in buying some existing
power plants, so we would already have some generating revenue and build a
new unit on that site. However, at that time utilities weren’t selling
nuclear power plants, so we couldn’t get anyone to sell us one. So we just
announced that we wanted to find a new site, a green field site as we call
it, for our nuclear power plant. We thought the west would be a good area
because of 104 nuclear power plants in the United States; there are only 5
in the west. The other 99 are in the east and there is a big power challenge
out here as we have seen in California in 1999 and 2000.
We announced that we wanted to look for a western site and we were contacted
by a group of farmers in Idaho who were trying to form an electricity co-op
to get cheaper energy. They are called ‘high lift’ farmers; high lift means
that they have to pump the water from the river up much higher to a plateau
to where they can to irrigate. Everything here is somewhat arid and without
irrigation nothing grows, because there is not enough rainfall. We told them
that this wouldn’t be over night, and they said that they understood that it
might take ten years, but it is clean energy and if they couldn’t benefit
from it, maybe their kids would. So we went out and looked at the property
and what we initially saw really wasn’t suitable, but then we found another
piece not to far away that was. And that was when we started our treck to
get it approved. We looked at several sites that year and selected the best
one. We are in a county called Payette County, sort of northwest of Boise,
Idaho, which is the capital. Next week we are starting the last phase of
hearings and we have already gone through the first phase. We hope that
within two or three months we will have the final and last approval from the
country and from the state of Idaho, to proceed and build this plant.
CEOCFO: So this will be your first plant.
Mr. Gillispie: Yes, this will be our first plant. Not the first one
of my career, but the first one for Alternate Energy Holdings. This would be
two units in this part of Idaho, with the idea of selling some power locally
into the state, although Idaho is not a large state, with only 1.5 million
people. So the rest would be exported into states such as California,
Oregon, and Nevada. It is a merchant plant and so our prices are not
regulated like most nuclear power plants, which are run by utilities, so our
return on profits is not limited by the capital investment. We are very
excited about that and we figure that in the next quarter of next year we
will be into the Federal regulatory process, which is the final phase where
we get the operating construction license, which takes about three years. So
we are pretty excited as this thing gets close to launching.
CEOCFO: Have you been spending the time building the relationships
power companies necessary to make money on this plant?
Mr. Gillispie: First you have to spend the political capital because
you have to get the leaders of the state to be behind it. You work with the
US congressmen, senators, state legislators, the governor’s office, and the
Department of Commerce. You get all of these top level guys in support, then
you move into the counties and get local approval in the county that seems
the best suited for the plant. It is a long process, but it will be the
first green field site since 1977, so it is kind of a big deal in that
regard. It will be the first new site since then, if we are successful, and
we fully well expect that we will be. With regard to the utilities, we have
talked with more than one utility. I can’t mention their names, but at least
one of them orally, was interested in buying up to 90% of this project. It
was a large utility that saw the benefit and saw that they could use the
power. We had another large utility that was also interested in a pretty
good stake in it. So we know that we have plenty of people that want in on
this, because there is really no new sources in the western United States
coming online to compete with the costs. Solar and wind, when you take out
the subsidies, these are 20 percent efficient power sources, so they are not
really attractive to the grid utilities. They put them on because the states
require them, but they want baseload and something the keeps the grid up. So
there are no more hydros (dams) being built and coal is not very popular as
people have actually shut some down to get rid of the emissions. Therefore,
nuclear is really the growing baseload source choice. A recent pole among
public utilities and public service commissioners nationwide indicated that
their choice for a new power source two to one was nuclear and gas being
next. It is wanted by the public utilities commissions, it is wanted by the
public utilities who understand the reliability and low cost and we are the
only guys in town doing it. We know that the demand is very high; we just
have to get to the finish line and recognize the benefits.
CEOCFO: Can you walk us through what it take to get a plant nuclear
plant built, going after the suppliers, getting it constructed and
overcoming the fears of the community about having a nuclear plant in their
back yard?
Mr. Gillispie: The community fears we have overcome. We have about an
80 to 90 percent approval rating in the area that we are building it. A
local business paper did a pole and also found numbers close to that. They
have had experience with INL (Idaho National Laboratory) in the eastern part
of the state, so they have 50 years or more experience with nuclear power,
at least with small reactors. Therefore, it is not foreign to them here, but
they have never had a commercial reactor, so from the standpoint of local
approval, we are probably in as good a shape as you can imagine. We have
selected a site that is kind of out of sight, out of mind, so it is away
from the NIMBYs (not in my back yard). People who are going to be close to
it are going to be opposed to it. However, we don’t really have much of that
issue at all. With regard to the suppliers, the fuel manufactures are the
ones who solicit the uranium and we just buy from the fuel manufacturer and
there are about ten fuel manufacturers around the world, so fuel supply is
really not an issue. We are looking at a pressurized water reactor that is
based on US technology; there are three that we are looking at and these are
all Westinghouse regional designs that were exported to other parts of the
world. They have been involved in those parts of the world over the last
thirty years and that would be marked back to the United States, because the
US no longer sells a reactor. Even the Westinghouse reactor, which was
originally made in the US, now has its reactors made in Japan. We will
actually be doing what we call a Westinghouse evolved reactor in this
country, so it has a good heritage, it is good, safe and reliable and right
not we are negotiating on the cost, which is a big issue. If you are a
merchant plant you have got to get a good deal. Right now, we are just
bouncing several against each other, trying to get the best deal that we
can. However, we are very comfortable that we have the suppliers available
and we have the contractors available to build these plants. The part that
people are most interested in is if we can finance this thing. And the
answer to that is yes. We have the first phase financing to get it up
through the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) approval already and now we
are looking at the larger financing for construction. There is a lot of
money available that is being held out of the investment areas, because
people really don’t know were to put their money. There is literally
billions and trillions of dollars available to be invested, but a lot of it
is in Asia, and they understand the technology. We have been approached by
several people who can lend us money, but we have not tried to sign them up,
because we want to get through the local approval and get into the NRC
process before we negotiate a large loan. So that is not really a worry of
mine; it is just a matter of making your financial case and this plant will
be extremely profitable. Between our calculations, the price we want to get
it at, and we believe that we can, we are looking at $3 to $4 billion a year
in profits per site. So we are pretty comfortable and feel that we are
attractive to the people who want to lend money as well as large investors.
CEOCFO: So the plan is that you would have to raise capital for each
site?
Mr. Gillispie: That is correct and these are kind of stand alone
projects that we set up as corporations underneath the holding company,
Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB:AEHI).
CEOCFO: What is the time table?
Mr. Gillispie: We expect 1st Quarter approval from the
state of Idaho, then we will start to collect environmental data for our NRC
application, which we will file near the end of 2011 after collecting that
data. Then we will wait for the NRC, which is a three to three and a half
year process right now. If you call and ask them they well say 44 months,
which is their stock answer. However, these plants have been approved in
this country before, so we don’t see it taking that long and the site that
we selected we don’t have any issues related to geography. When you select a
site, usually you have something that is not quite what you want it to be,
and you have to someway address that, but this site really has no
weaknesses, so we think that its approval will go pretty quickly. Therefore,
we expect to start construction in the late 2014 timeframe and then bring it
online in 2018.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us about your subsidiaries and other projects
that seem to be more near term revenue generators?
Mr. Gillispie: We have one called Green World Water™, which is a
joint venture with us and China National Nuclear Corporation, where they
make reactors and desalinization units combined for us. We are the first
ones to offer that commercially and we are trying to sell these to
developing countries. Essentially, people don’t realize that nuclear plants
can make electricity and water simultaneously, which unlike conventional
desalinization that can only make one or the other, by your choice because
it is a large thermal heat source. We have already contacted about thirty
countries that are interested in these units. We are heading to Africa to
speak with the head of one of those African nations. So we are excited about
selling a commercial desalinization unit that has never been sold in the
world. They have been made, but never marketed. So we think that is going to
be a good business for us and create our first profits probably sometime
next year. Then we have Energy Neutral™, where we are selling our first
house and we are building five more. In these homes, we take renewables,
primarily solar, but also wind and geothermal if appropriate and put them on
homes and buildings and essentially eliminates their energy bill. You stay
connected to the grid, but the home will be energy neutral and doesn’t take
power from the grid. So it is pretty much self sustaining. We built one in
March and we have operated it pretty much with everything turned on for the
last four or five months just to demonstrate that it is indeed energy
neutral. And now we have contracted the seller. Therefore, we should have
some revenue in December. We have two people that we are going to sell
franchises to; one in Texas and one in Arizona. So we are going to start
marketing franchises. In fact, we will probably market two here before the
end of the year that we have some interest in. So the idea to grow this
business is to market the franchises and get volume by supplying the
equipment to the franchisees. That is a demand side business in electricity
that keeps the demand down and uses renewables in a more responsible way
that makes more sense.
CEOCFO: How did you come about your subsidiaries; was it through your
own development, partnerships or acquisitions?
Mr. Gillispie: Energy Neutral we created ourselves. I got some
builders, we worked together and designed the concept and built the first
home. So it is pretty much grass roots. The commercial nuclear
desalinization business was my idea, but I needed to find a supplier,
someone who could build and combine these two proven technologies together;
nuclear energy and desalinization. However, no one had ever done that
commercially before, so I started talking to some reactor builders to see if
there was some interest and the most interest created was by the Chinese.
They are using Westinghouse technology that was evolved in the United
States, but sold to China. So we are using proven technology that we are
familiar with as a reactor source and desalinization has been around for
fifty years or more; it is not a new technology. We essentially created the
idea and talked somebody into making it for us, but we are primarily
marketing it.
CEOCFO: In closing, would you address potential investors and tell us
why they should consider Alternate Energy Holdings?
Mr. Gillispie: The company has no debt, we have enough cash to
operate several years, and we have an equity line now to finance the first
phase of our US nuclear power plant here in Idaho. In addition, we have
revenue streams just getting ready to start with Energy Neutral and we will
also have revenue streams, probably in the middle of next year from the
Green World Water commercial desalinization/reactor sales. Therefore, we are
soon to make money. Green World Water here in the US will be very
profitable. One of the things that I tell people is that you want to think
about profitability; if I build six units in Idaho and are able to build
them at the cost that I think I can and sell at current market prices on the
west coast, then I can rival Exxon Mobil in profitability. When I say that,
I am not exaggerating and that is the kind of money that these things can
make. So if investors get in at the current stock price, which is about 60
cents and they are comfortable waiting awhile, the returns could be pretty
phenomenal.
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