Management Comment
Lynn Smull, Gevo’s Chief Financial Officer, said “The U.S. Department of Energy has been conducting a thorough diligence and term sheet negotiation process with us on a loan guarantee that we believe will be the cornerstone of kicking off construction of the Net-Zero 1 project, which is at a mature stage of development. Given what we have seen to date, we remain on track for an estimated end of 2024 financial close to fully fund Net-Zero 1.”
Dr. Patrick R. Gruber, Gevo’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “The guidance provided for Section 40B in the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) served to break the log jam in terms of moving forward with financing of Net-Zero 1 as a precedent for Section 45Z rules. The guidance included recognition of certain agricultural benefits, carbon capture and sequestration, as well as enshrining a reasonable version of the Argonne GREET model into the rule. While we recognize that improvements to the rules certainly can be made, we believe it was a good start.”
Dr. Gruber continued, “We recently had the well-respected economics consulting group Charles River Associates analyze the economic impact of our Net-Zero 1 project. The analysis shows that for every dollar received under the IRA bill for SAF, the national benefit is several times greater. That is a huge return on tax investment. The economic benefits include hundreds of permanent jobs that would be created, the expected increase in demand for local corn, reductions to pollution, improvements to agricultural land, increased renewable energy infrastructure, and other benefits for each SAF plant like Net-Zero 1. We believe the impact to rural economic development from deployment of SAF would be tremendous. We look forward to finalizing the DOE loan guarantee, getting the Net-Zero 1 project financing completed, and expanding our footprint to other Net-Zero sites. We want to see rural America participate in the new market of net-zero jet fuels.”
2024 Second Quarter Financial Results
Operating revenue. During the three months ended June 30, 2024, operating revenue increased $1.0 million compared to the three months ended June 30, 2023, primarily due to sales of RNG and environmental attributes from our RNG project. During the three months ended June 30, 2024, we sold 95,187 MMBtu of RNG from our RNG project, resulting in RNG sales of $0.1 million and environmental attribute sales of $4.2 million. Additionally, we recognized $0.8 million of licensing and development revenue from the agreement with LG Chem during the three months ended June 30, 2024, compared to $1.3 million during the three months ended June 30, 2023.
Cost of production. Cost of production increased $1.5 million during the three months ended June 30, 2024, compared to the three months ended June 30, 2023 primarily due to the production and sales from our RNG project, which significantly increased in 2023, after the ramp-up phase.
Depreciation and amortization. Depreciation and amortization decreased $0.5 million during the three months ended June 30, 2024, compared to the three months ended June 30, 2023, due to the timing of sales of environmental attribute inventory.
Research and development expense. Research and development expenses decreased $0.3 million during the three months ended June 30, 2024, compared to the three months ended June 30, 2023, primarily due to decreased consulting expenses and professional fees.
General and administrative expense. General and administrative expense increased $0.9 million during the three months ended June 30, 2024, compared to the three months ended June 30, 2023, primarily due to increases in personnel costs related to the hiring of highly qualified and skilled professionals, and professional consulting fees, and an increase in stock-based compensation. On an annual basis, we assess our corporate cost allocation estimates across all segments to reflect the use of centralized administrative functions as well as the allocation of personnel costs related to our project development efforts.
Project development costs. Project development costs are primarily related to our Net-Zero Projects and Verity, which consist primarily of employee expenses, preliminary engineering costs, and technical consulting costs. Project development costs increased $4.8 million during the three months ended June 30, 2024, compared to the three months ended June 30, 2023, primarily due to increases in personnel costs, consulting fees, and costs related to our USDA Grant, which have not yet been reimbursed.
Facility idling costs. Facility idling costs are related to the care and maintenance of our Luverne Facility. Facility idling costs decreased $0.3 million during the three months ended June 30, 2024, compared to the three months ended June 30, 2023.
Loss from operations. The Company’s loss from operations increased $5.1 million during the three months ended June 30, 2024, compared to the three months ended June 30, 2023, primarily due to the increase in costs for our Net-Zero and Verity projects.