Burning Maine
Energy Central NewsGood article about the comeback of the wood-burning electricity industry in Maine.
Biomass revival
The article emphasises that government regulations and incentives have controlled the fate of the business. Makes it sound like people would burn their own house down if the government incentives were right.
Biomass energy market red hot
By TUX TURKEL, Portland Press Herald
Three years ago, the fires were going out at Maine's multi-million dollar biomass energy industry.
Most of the 11 plants built across rural Maine in the 1990s to generate electricity from waste wood were off line for months at a time. A couple shut down permanently. By 2002, an industry that had generated enough power to light 250,000 homes, employed hundreds of workers and provided a market for low-grade wood was fighting for its life.
Today, all the surviving plants are running near capacity, or undergoing upgrades worth millions of dollars so they can restart. Developers are planning a new $80 million plant with enough capacity for 40,000 homes, in the same location that a smaller biomass plant was dismantled last year.
"It was unthinkable two years ago that someone would build a new plant," said Stephen Hall, plant manager at Stratton Power Station. "The thought was that nobody's going to build in this industry for a while."
But Hall and other experts caution that the current expansion has limits. These plants swallow more than 1,000 tons of a day of sawdust, waste wood and construction debris, so a reliable supply is critical. Also, developers that once before invested in biomass plants based on projected oil prices and expected public-policy initiatives are weighing the risk of being stung again.
It was public policy that brought Maine a biomass industry in the first place.
Foreign oil embargoes in the 1970s prompted the federal and state governments to pass laws encouraging energy production from renewable resources, such as wood and water. That spurred a new industry in Maine and the construction of more than two dozen biomass plants.
The market changed again in 2000, after Maine restructured its utility industry. Wood-fired power couldn't compete with the wholesale prices available from newly built gas-fired power plants across New England. By 2002, five Maine biomass plants were off line and two had shut for good.
Now the market is being transformed for a third time. Natural gas prices are soaring, taking away the competitive advantage from newer gas plants. Meanwhile, government policies aimed at encouraging the growth of environmentally friendly power plants are once again favoring biomass. One boost came last year from Congress, in the form of a production tax credit for renewable generation.
But the biggest push involves financial incentives recently created in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Several states, including Maine, require that a percentage of power sales comes from renewable energy sources. Because Maine generates more power than it needs, it can ship excess electricity south. Recently, southern New England states have begun to reward generators who can produce renewable power that meets specific guidelines. They are eligible to earn a premium, on top of the price they are paid for the electricity.
Today's biomass operators are looking for every financial edge to make their projects viable. In Athens, selectmen agreed to create a Pine Tree Zone to give GenPower tax advantages for locating there.
State environmental laws allow construction and demolition debris to make up 50 percent of the fuel mix at a modern biomass plant. Maine plants burn demo waste from throughout New England, because it's less expensive than bark and some other wood wastes.
Dave Wilby, executive producer at the Independent Energy Producers of Maine, agreed that no one can predict how the market will evolve. And he suggested that the existence of state-mandated green energy markets is more important to the industry than oil and gas prices.
Original Article from Portland Press Herald
Energy Central News
Related article:
Help for forest industry outlined
By TUX TURKEL, Portland Press Herald Writer
A task force created last year by Gov. John Baldacci to address challenges facing Maine's forest products industry presented its final report Tuesday, recommending a range of tax, policy and business strategies to help make the industry more competitive.
posted by Prospector @ 8:31 AM
1 Comments:
Is there really that much of this demolition debris and other stuff to burn? I wonder too about the transportation and processing costs for the fuel. You gotta gather and sort and bring this crap to the plant in trucks I presume. How does that compare to bringing gas or oil to a conventional plant? They're probably located next to giant sawmills or something. Also I thought people used to complain about how poluting woodstoves were. These things just sound like giant woodstoves. I wonder if they're shaped like giant woodstoves. That would be kind of Maine-y.
Post a Comment
<< Home