by jbs082809 a3 — September 2, 2009—The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) reports that biomass projects of all sizes are being implemented across the country, with the largest one being converted in Ohio.
Under a recent federal court agreement, an Ohio utility will soon convert a large coal-fired power plant into one using primarily renewable biomass fuels, making it the largest such plant to do so. Ohio Edison Company, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., agreed to retrofit its R.E. Burger Units 4 and 5 near Shadyside, Ohio, as part of a 2005 federal consent agreement in a lawsuit aimed at reducing pollution.
Ohio Edison intends to replace the 312 megawatts (MW) of electricity now generated at Burger with biomass by 2012. Ultimately, the utility plans on using a “closed-loop” system for its biomass supply, drawing on energy crops specifically grown to provide a constant supply of biomass to the power plant.
Florida is the site of at least three other announced projects. Gainesville Renewable Energy Center, LLC (GREC) will build and operate a 100-MW biomass power plant in Gainesville to supply Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU). The plant will be fired by forestry waste material as well as urban wood waste—wood from tree trimming and discarded pallets—and is expected to come online in 2013.
In addition, ADAGE LLC, a joint venture owned by affiliates of AREVA SA and Duke Energy Company, has picked Hamilton County as the proposed site of its first U.S. biomass power plant. This facility is the initial model in what ADAGE says will be a series of 50-MW biomass power plants designed to burn clean wood waste as fuel to produce electricity.
Elsewhere in the state, Biomass Gas & Electric LLC (BG&E) is planning a 42-MW site, dubbed the Northwest Florida Renewable Energy Center, that will use gasification technology to burn wood chips.
Further, the Oglethorpe Power Corporation purchased a 355-acre tract in Warren County, Georgia, for a proposed biomass generating plant. Oglethorpe plans to build two or three 100-MW biomass facilities and anticipates operation for the first plant in 2014.
In New Hampshire, Lindt USA, a chocolate manufacturer, recently collaborated with Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH) to conduct a test burn of cocoa bean shells as a potential biomass resource. If the results show the shells work well as fuel, the chocolate maker could be providing the shells to the power company by the end of the year.
