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Green Circle Plans Second Pellet Plant
Green Circle Bio Energy will invest $115 million to establish a wood pellet manufacturing facility in Lucedale, Miss. at the George County Industrial Park. The facility is expected to be operational by spring 2015 and will produce pellets for shipment from the Port of Pascagoula to European markets to be sold to electric generating facilities as a renewable alternative to coal. Initially, the plant will have the capacity to produce 500,000 tons of pellets per year.
The firm plans to create from 126 to 141 jobs in the region; the majority of positions will be offered at the George County facility, with the remainder at the Port of Pascagoula, Mississippi. Additional temporary jobs will also be created during plant construction.
The Mississippi Development Authority provided assistance in support of the project for infrastructure needs at the project site. In addition, George County provided assistance for the project.
Green Circle Bio Energy already operates a wood pellet manufacturing plant in Cottondale, Fla. with a production capacity of 560,000 tons per year. The company has been exploring expansion options since 2011 when production in Cottondale started nearing capacity.
Morten Neraas, CEO of Green Circle Bio Energy, says the industrial park is an ideal location inside a large wood basket area and close to the Port of Pascagoula.
Earlier this year, the Mississippi legislature approved $10 million in state bond funding to build a specialized wood pellet exporting facility at terminals E and F at Bayou Casotte Harbor. Now the port has signed an agreement with George County which provides the remainder of the funding from the county and the primary user of the terminal.
St. Joe Co. Working With Energy Firms
The St. Joe Company has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Enova Energy Group that contemplates economic development opportunities for Florida’s northwest region, including the potential to bolster usage of the AN Railway and make the Port of Port St. Joe operational.
Enova has expressed an interest in transporting a minimum of 1 million metric tons per year of wood pellets using the AN Railway to the Port of Port St. Joe for shipment to overseas markets. Additionally, Enova expressed an interest in using or developing Port site facilities provided that the Port is capable of accepting vessels of adequate size for the shipment of its commercial wood pellets.
Enova Energy Group reports it is interested in developing, constructing, owning and operating wood pellet facilities throughout the Southeastern U.S. and is currently developing three wood pellet production facilities and expects to make its first shipment of pellets in the fourth quarter of 2014.
A month earlier, The St. Joe Company signed a similar LOI with Green Circle Bio Energy, Inc., which operates a large wood pellet plant in Cottondale, Fla. Green Circle and St. Joe also expressed their intent to enter into a wood fiber supply agreement.
The Port of Port St. Joe is well positioned for bulk cargo shipments, offering access to rail, the U.S. Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and state and U.S. highways. The Port also has a navigational channel that is federally authorized to a maximum of 37 feet; however, dredging the Port’s shipping channel to the authorized depth is necessary prior to commencing shipping activities. The letters of intent are contingent upon the Port of Port St. Joe receiving funding to complete maintenance dredging of the shipping channel.
“Adequate infrastructure is paramount to bringing new business and jobs to northwest Florida,” says Park Brady, CEO for The St. Joe Company. “The prospective rail improvements to the AN Railway are critical to opening doors for economic development for the Port of Port St. Joe and surrounding areas. The last major hurdle to an operational port and new jobs is the necessary dredging improvement to the shipping channel.”
The St. Joe Company owns 567,000 acres primarily in northwest Florida.
ReEnergy's Fort Drum Facility Starts Up
ReEnergy Black River celebrated its grand opening at the U.S. Army’s Fort Drum in New York near Watertown. It has 60 MW of generation capacity. Before it was idled in early 2010 by its former owner, the facility primarily burned coal to produce electricity. ReEnergy acquired the facility in December 2011 and invested more than $34 million to convert the facility to use biomass as its primary fuel.
ReEnergy Holdings also announced it has achieved certification to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, which verifies that ReEnergy’s biomass procurement program promotes land stewardship and responsible forestry practices. ReEnergy states it is the first company solely devoted to electricity production to be certified to the SFI Standard.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has selected ReEnergy Black River to sell renewable energy credits (RECs) to NYSERDA under New York’s Renewable Portfolio Standard. The Renewable Portfolio Standard, administered by NYSERDA, is a program that is tasked with obtaining 30% of New York’s electricity from renewable sources by 2015.
ReEnergy Black River will create significant economic benefits for the four-county region of Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego and St. Lawrence counties, as well as throughout New York State. Approximately 180 jobs were created during the retrofit of the facility, which began in 2012. Thirty-three workers are employed full-time at the plant, and an estimated 144 are working in logging crews collecting forest residue from regional forests.
The facility could provide all of Fort Drum’s power needs, which currently peaks at about 28 MW. This demand would rise as the base population grows. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires that by 2013, 7.5% of all electricity consumed by the federal government be produced from renewable sources. In addition, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2007 requires that by 2025, 25% of all energy consumed by the Dept. of Defense comes from renewable sources.
ReEnergy also owns biomass-to-energy facilities in Lyons Falls (Lewis County) and Chateaugay (Franklin County).
ReEnergy will make approximately $11 million in annual wood purchases from local loggers. ReEnergy has acquired and leased wood chippers to 14 of its fuel suppliers in New York State, allowing loggers to secure long-term agreements to provide fuel to ReEnergy biomass-to-energy facilities while also buying chippers under ReEnergy’s lease-to-own program.
Under the terms of these contracts, the loggers will make long-term commitments to sell their biomass fuel to ReEnergy and they will pay for the chippers over time, with the equipment purchase payments deducted by ReEnergy from the payments to the suppliers for the biomass fuel. Ownership of the chipper will transfer from ReEnergy once the supplier has fully paid for the equipment.
Through a program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and in collaboration with SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, the ReEnergy Black River facility also will use locally grown shrub willow as a fuel. The project involves the planting of up to 3,500 acres within an eligible region that spans nine counties.
ReEnergy Holdings LLC, a portfolio company of Riverstone Holdings LLC, operates in six states, employs 290, and owns and/or operates nine energy production facilities with the combined capacity to generate 325 MW of energy.
Kior Reports Plant Milestones
KiOR, Inc. announced that its commercial scale cellulosic gasoline and diesel production facility in Columbus, Miss. has achieved several key operational milestones.
First, the facility’s Biomass Fluid Catalytic Cracking, or BFCC, unit has completed its first uninterrupted 30-day run. Second, the facility made its first shipment of cellulosic gasoline on June 28, which represented the first fuel shipment since March 2013.
Lastly, the facility commenced regular shipments of both gasoline and diesel that same day.
“Commencing regular shipments of gasoline and diesel is very significant for KiOR, as it reflects the continuous improvements in our operations at the Columbus facility,” says Fred Cannon, KiOR’s President and CEO. “We have been undertaking considerable reliability and optimization efforts in areas of the facility unrelated to KiOR’s core technology. The success of these efforts gives us confidence, more than ever, that the performance targets for the Columbus plant are attainable in the months ahead and that our operating assumptions for our next, larger Natchez plant are reasonable.”
Cannon says that with the facility operating stably and producing cellulosic gasoline and diesel at commercial scale, he believes they are on track to achieve steady-state operations before the end of the calendar year and to demonstrate improving performance metrics over that time frame. “The largest commercially producing cellulosic production facility in the world, we expect Columbus —enhanced with our recent optimizations—to be the basis of our second facility’s design at Natchez,” Cannon says.
Biofuels Plant Planned For Ireland
CPL Industries plans to build a biofuel plant at the Port of Foynes (Ireland) that will create 142 jobs. CPL Industries is a UK based company that is Europe’s leading manufacturer and wholesaler of smokeless solid fuel products for the domestic heating market.
The plant will initially have a capacity of 200,000 tonnes of briquette production but will be designed with the potential to expand to more than 300,000 tonnes should this be supported by market development.
CPL Fuels Ireland entered the Irish solid fuel market in 2011, establishing a nationwide marketing and distribution network, and an operations facility in Foynes Port. The Board of CPL Industries has, as a result of the recent announcement by Minister Hogan of a future ban on the sale of smoky coal, agreed to proceed with a proposal to invest €20 million in the creation of a new biofuel plant, subject to planning and the suitable implementation of the proposed ban and appropriate government support for biofuels.
The plant will employ 100 when fully operational, with 42 additional people in sales, distribution and plant maintenance while 150 will be employed in the construction of this new facility. The company hopes to have the plant operational by 2015. The plant will also have a need for approximately 80,000 tonnes of biomass when in full production and initial discussions have commenced with growers about how this need can be met.
CPL CEO Tim Minett, noting that Ireland is the first country in Europe to move toward a ban on the sale of smoky coal, comments, “We can supply a smoke-free product that has superior heat output and burn time than traditional bituminous coal. We have been selling ‘E coal 50’ in Ireland for the past year and the response to the product has been very encouraging.”
E coal 50 is a blended product that is made from a blend of 33% biomass and 50% fossil fuels with 17% molasses. It produces 80% less smoke and is officially defined as smoke free. It has a higher heat output than coal and burns for 30% longer. It has other advantages, as it doesn’t spark or spit like traditional coal and therefore does not normally need a fireguard, according to Minett.
“These new products will compete on price with traditional coal given a suitable Carbon Tax regime and will offer those who rely on solid fuel a cost effective and more energy efficient and greener alternative to traditional coal,” he says.
Forest Service Awards Ten Project Grants
U.S. Forest Service awarded nearly $2.5 million in grants to 10 small businesses and community groups for wood-to-energy projects. The projects will use woody material removed from forests during projects such as wildfire prevention and beetle-killed trees, and process woody biomass in bioenergy facilities to produce green energy for heating and electricity. The awardees will use funds from the Woody Biomass Utilization Grant.
In fiscal year 2012, 20 biomass grant awards from the Woody Biomass Utilization Grant program totaling approximately $3 million were made to small business and community groups across the country. This $3 million investment leveraged more than $400 million of rural development grants and loan guarantees for woody biomass facilities. The program has contributed to the treatment of more than 500,000 acres and removed and used nearly 5 million green tons of biomass at an average cost of just $66 per acre. Grantees also reported a combined 1,470 jobs created or retained as a result of the grant awards.
According to the requirements, all 10 recipients provided at least 20% of the total project cost. Non-federal matching funds total nearly $6.3 million. The following are the 2013 woody biomass utilization grantees: Chilkoot Indian Association, Haines, Alaska $35,000; Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Ketchikan, Alaska $143,363; Sierra Institute for Community and Environment, Plumas County, Calif. $250,000; Calaveras Healthy Impact Products Solution, Wilseyville, Calif. $184,405; Narragansett Regional School District, Baldwinville, Mass. $250,000; Stoltze Land and Lumber Co., Columbia Falls, Mont. $210,980; New Generation Biomass, Alamogordo, N.M. $250,000; Wisewood, Inc., Harney County, Ore. $250,000; Oregon Military Dept., Salem, Ore. $250,000; Menominee Tribal Enterprises, Neopit, Wis. $250,000
Greenleaf Power Buys Tracy Biomass Plant
Greenleaf Power, an owner and operator of green energy power plants, has finalized the purchase of the 19 MW Tracy Biomass Plant located in Tracy, Calif., approximately 45 miles east of Oakland. Tracy Biomass is Greenleaf Power’s fourth California biomass plant. Greenleaf Power owns and operates the 47 MW Desert View plant in Mecca, 30 MW Honey Lake plant in Wendel, and 28 MW Eel River plant in Scotia.
“With the addition of the Tracy facility, Greenleaf Power has more than 120 megawatts of baseload renewable power, and operates these facilities to maximize efficiencies across its platform,” says Hugh Smith, president of Greenleaf Power.
The Tracy facility is capable of providing baseload renewable energy for as many as 19,000 homes in northern California. The biomass facility is one of the closest to Oakland and the Silicon Valley and sells its electrical output to Pacific Gas & Electric under a long-term agreement.
Greenleaf Power purchased the Tracy facility from US Renewables Group, which operated the Tracy plant since 2007. The plant was built in 1990. Greenleaf Power is backed by Denham Capital, a global energy-focused private equity firm.
Enviva Starts Up Northampton Plant
Enviva celebrated the opening of Enviva Pellets Northampton, a wood pellet production facility in North Carolina with a capacity of 500,000 metric tons per year.
The plant employs 79 full time and is estimated to support 130 jobs in the forestry supply chain. Wood pellets produced at this facility are exported through Enviva’s Port of Chesapeake export terminal in Virginia to European energy utility customers.
Enviva owns an additional wood pellet production facility in Ahoskie, NC with a capacity of 365,000 metric tons per year and is currently completing the construction of an additional 500,000 metric ton per year production facility in Southampton County, Va. Once complete, Enviva’s Mid-Atlantic fleet of facilities will have a combined production capacity of approximately 1.36 million metric tons per year, and its nationwide production capacity will extend to 1.7 million metric tons annually.
Aspen Power Plant Under Investor Control
A district judge has signed an order giving control of Aspen Power to its investors. Aspen Power is the biomass power plant that started up in Lufkin, Texas in August 2011 and then shut down last year.
The U.S. Bank and National Association had filed an order requesting the judge to give control to investors, which the bank represents as a trustee. The parties are apparently considering selling the entire plant or selling it piecemeal.
The Angelina and Neches River Authority Industrial Development Corp. issued $53.3 million worth of revenue bonds to the company for the purpose of building the plant in Lufkin under a loan agreement. According to reports, Aspen Power has not made payments since February 2012.
Pacific Green Takes Lead On UK Project
Pacific Green Technologies Inc. has purchased Pacific Green Energy Parks Ltd., the sole shareholder of Energy Park Sutton Bridge Limited (EPSB), a company incorporated in the UK. EPSB has obtained planning permission to develop a 49 MW biomass power plant on land located at Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire, UK and holds the option to purchase the property on which the plant will be built.
The entire plant is anticipated to cost GBP165m (US$250m) and intends to use the ENVI-Pure Emission Control System for removal of any hazardous gases and pollutants generated by the plant. PGTK owns the marketing rights to the ENVI-Pure Emission Control System, which is designed to remove pollutants from flue gases.
Georgia Power Adds Biomass Capacity
Georgia Power is adding 53.5 MW of biomass capacity to the company’s generation portfolio. The addition of the biomass capacity is made possible through a 20-year purchase power agreement (PPA) with Rollcast Energy, Inc., under which Georgia Power will receive all generation output of the newly completed Piedmont Green Power plant, located in Barnesville, Ga. The plant, which began commercial operation on April 19 after two years of construction, will provide enough electricity to power more than 35,000 homes. Piedmont Green Power will process 500,000 tons of woody biomass annually.
Georgia Power is the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the nation’s largest generators of electricity.
Forth Energy Plans Biomass Power Plant
The Scottish Government has granted consent for Forth Energy, a joint venture between Forth Ports Limited and SSE plc, to develop a wood fueled renewable combined heat and power (CHP) plant at the Port of Grangemouth.
The CHP plant will be the largest in Scotland. It will use sustainably sourced wood fuel primarily from overseas and will have the capacity to generate significant amounts of low carbon renewable electricity (120 MW) and heat (200 MW). Electricity will be supplied to the national grid and heat will be supplied to industrial users, thereby reducing their carbon emissions. The plant also provides the potential for the subsequent installation of a district heating network in the Grangemouth area.
Forth Energy’s plant will make a significant contribution to Scotland’s 2020 renewable heat and electricity targets and will complement other forms of renewable energy. The wood fuel for the plant is intended to be sourced from overseas and delivered by ship, the lowest carbon means of transportation for bulk goods. The plant’s location on an 18 hectare site within the Port of Grangemouth will allow the fuel to be discharged directly into the plant.
Forth Energy will now engage with the relevant authorities, including the Scottish Government and Falkirk Council, to examine the details of the consent granted in order to progress the development of the CHP plant. It is anticipated that the plant will take approximately three years to build following a year’s detailed design and engineering, and the plant could begin generating heat and electricity by 2017.
The plant represents a capital investment of £465m. It will create 300 construction jobs, peaking at 500 during parts of the build process; then 70 operational jobs based at the port, running the plant and handling the fuel.
Schools To Implement Biomass Power
Bangor Daily News reports that two educational institutions in the St. John Valley broke ground on a $4 million biomass project that will reduce the environmental footprint of both schools while also scaling back energy costs.
Officials at the University of Maine at Fort Kent and SAD 27 kicked off the project at the site of the former Fort Kent Armory where a large biomass heating system will be installed. It will be connected by means of underground hot water pipes to 10 university buildings and two at Fort Kent Community High School.
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