It will take several years for biomass power production to reach its full potential in Florida, even though the low-emission renewable energy source has more potential in the state than solar power, said a University of Florida agriculture economist.
Alan Hodges said about two-thirds of the state’s renewable energy generation comes through burning wood waste to boil water, producing steam to power turbines. The sulphur-free process produces carbon emissions, but they are greatly reduced though the life cycle of trees, which process the carbon dioxide.
Biomass can be a boon to the state’s timber industry although Hodges noted a short-term increase in using trees as fuel could make manufactured wood products more expensive. Progressive utilities, such as Gainesville Regional Utilities, have gotten onboard, but it will take a state renewable energy standard to spur other utilities to do likewise.
“Until there is a measure in place to create a demand for renewable energy, the industry will continue to flounder,” Hodges said.
JEA allowed a letter of intent to buy enough biomass-generated electricity to power 40,000 homes from a Hamilton County plant to expire, said Jay Worley, the utility’s director of environmental programs. The utility passed on the purchase after choosing to buy electricity from a 15-megawatt Westside solar farm.
Worley said the electricity from the 50-megawatt biomass plant would have been cheaper than buying power from the solar farm, but the utility wasn’t prepared to spend more on renewable energy and take on the added costs of transmitting the electricity from Hamilton County.
Construction of the $200 million biomass plant can begin once Adage LLC — the joint venture between Duke Energy Corp., one of the nation’s largest power companies, and Areva Inc., an international nuclear power provider — signs a contract with a utility. Building the facility would create about 700 construction jobs and about 200 permanent direct and indirect jobs, said Rob Parrett, director of business development at Adage.
“The U.S. market for renewable energy has slowed down,” he said.
With the death of federal cap-and-trade legislation and uncertainty on how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will use its enhanced power to crack down on carbon emissions, the likeliest boon for the biomass industry in Florida is a state renewable standard.
Renewable portfolio standards, which generally require utilities to power 20 percent of their grid using renewable power by 2020, are uncommon in the Southeast, with North Carolina the only state in the region to have one, Hodges said. Gov. Charlie Crist proposed legislation that would require Florida utilities to hit the 20 percent mark within 10 years, but it failed to pass the House in 2008.
Boston-based American Renewables’ planned 100-megawatt biomass plant is in limbo like Adage’s planned facility. The $500 million plant would employ about 145 and create about 160 jobs through the need for harvesting, processing and delivering the wood waste, said American Renewables spokesman John Levine.
The Public Service Commission, the state’s utility regulatory agency, requires nonmunicipal utilities to buy the cheapest source of electricity, thus blocking their ability to buy biomass-generated electricity. Electricity generated through natural gas and coal is generally cheaper than biomass-produced electricity, but it will lose its pricing edge if carbon emission regulation tightens as expected, Levine said.
“We have not been able to sell the facility and we have approached JEA and almost every other electricity buyer in the state,” Levine said.
Renewable Energy has had more success with its planned 100-megawatt plant in Gainesville. The facility, which will have a comparable impact to the planned Hamilton County plant, is expected to be completed in late 2013.
Gainesville Regional Utilities spokeswoman Kim Jamerson said the 30-year contract is expected to receive state and federal approval by the end of the year. The utility will save between $212 million and $492 million on the open energy market through the biomass contract if carbon emission regulation is passed, according to published reports.
The biomass project has garnered controversy from some environmentalists who argue the plant will cause particulate pollution and trucks delivering biomass will create more carbon dioxide emissions. In early November, a state administrative judge urged Crist to approve the plant because it would cut down on carbon emission and increase stewardship of the region’s forests.
Hodges said about 32 state power plants use biomass fuels, but the majority of them use it in a cogeneration model, where it is coupled with another form of power production. Standalone Florida biomass facilities include a 20-megawatt plant near Tallahassee and an 80-megawatt plant in West Bay that burns the residue of sugar cane and uses wood debris when the crop isn’t in season.
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