National Bioenergy Day

News

Chinese Camp biomass plant has 5-year deal with Southern California Edison

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The biomass energy plant outside Chinese Camp has been awarded a five-year contract from Southern California Edison to burn wood from forest management operations and high fire hazard zones to produce 18 megawatts of electricity per hour, or 432 megawatts a day, private owners of the plant said this week.

Terms of the deal, which are considered secret, are concealed in documents that refer to a protective order, a nondisclosure certificate, and an interagency confidentiality agreement.

The power purchase agreement took effect March 1 after completion of a scheduled maintenance outage at the plant, which is called Pacific Ultra Power Chinese Station.

The maintenance outage lasted about three months, said Rick Spurlock, west region director of operations for IHI Power Services Corporation, a Tokyo-based owner of Pacific Ultrapower Chinese Station.

The plant boiler was refurbished, and IHI Power Services Corporation spent about $3 million total on maintenance. Now that Pacific Ultrapower Chinese Station has the contract, Spurlock said, the owners plan to invest in redeveloping Chinese Station, possibly to expand its role to include energy storage.

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In Springfield, mayor’s innovation persistence leads timber town into future

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SPRINGFIELD, Ore. – Mayor Christine Lundberg had the revolutionary idea: Take a banal urban edifice – a cement parking structure – and recast it as the catalyst that connects Springfield’s rich history with a forward-thinking future.

Her citizenry concurred, and now Springfield (population 60,000) plans to build a four-story parking structure out of cross-laminated timber (CLT).

Keep reading: They’re not crazy. It can be done. In fact, it is the backbone of a multi-pronged strategy to showcase sustainable design, grow jobs and improve high school graduation rates.

The garage will be the sole publicly owned building in the planned redevelopment of Glenwood (an incorporated area west of Springfield) along the Willamette River. The proposal also includes a hotel/conference center, commercial buildings, housing and parks.

Springfield’s school district saw opportunity in Lundberg’s idea as well. The educators want to improve student success and career readiness by capitalizing on the interest in mass timber and incorporating advanced manufacturing into the curriculum.

And Lundberg is just getting started.

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Program Trains Soldiers for Forestry Jobs

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Sally Gorrill’s career as an engineer in the U.S. Army has taken her to such places as Panama and the Dominican Republic, where she’s built medical clinics. Now, she’s interested in applying her skills toward a new field: forestry.

Gorrill, 30, a captain who’s spent seven years in the Army, is part of a new summer internship program for soldiers through the Veterans Conservation Corps in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest. She’s getting training in land management skills as she prepares to transition out of the service.

“It’s the closest I’ve been to home in about 12 years, so it feels great to be back,” said Gorrill, of Gray, Maine, who wants to spend her future outdoors.

So far, she and two other veterans in the program have learned how to maintain trails, keep away bears and fight forest fires. She’ll also be learning about hydrology, wildlife biology, law enforcement and other facets of the U.S. Forest Service, which partnered with the Department of Defense on the project.

Organizers hope the fledgling program will provide a model that can be applied nationally to assist more soldiers interested in land management.

Forest Ranger Jim Innes said the Forest Service nationwide is experiencing a lot of attrition through retirement. He said the agency has hired military veterans, who bring strong skills to the Forest Service.

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October 18 is Bioenergy Day 2017 – Here’s a Handy Planning Guide

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It’s time to start planning your 2017 Bioenergy Day event! With more than four months to go, there’s plenty of time to decide how your organization will recognize the day, sharing with audiences old and new the many benefits of bioenergy.

This year, we are highlighting the economic benefits of bioenergy. The presence of bioenergy in a community creates jobs, enhances revenue and forest products markets, and reduces waste. Our video on bioenergy, forest products and forestry in Northwestern Montana will illustrate how manufacturers convert leftover fuels into energy.

There are many ways to contribute to Bioenergy Day 2017. We’ve uploaded our Bioenergy Day 2017 Participation Guide on the site to help you brainstorm the ways to mark Bioenergy Day, with some best practices and sample materials. You can also look around out website, www.bioenergyday.org, to see how other groups have approached Bioenergy Day.

Successful past activities have included:

  • visits by school groups,
  • tours for elected officials and their staff members,
  • staff appreciation days
  • retail discounts
  • newspaper advertisements and/or opinion pieces
  • panel discussions

If your organization plans to participate in Bioenergy Day 2017, please register on the Bioenergy Day website so we can recognize the event on our site.

Contact Carrie Annand at [email protected] with any questions or for help with planning!

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Drax Biomass inks ‘unprecedented’ agreement to protect forested wetlands from logging

Cypress trees in the Atchafalaya Basin (pictured) will now receive better protection

Cypress trees in the Atchafalaya Basin (pictured) will now receive better protection

Drax Biomass (DBI), a pellet manufacturer operating in the Southeast US, has signed an agreement declaring the cypress and tupelo stands found in forested wetlands, including the Atchafalaya Basin, to be off-limits for its timber purchases.

Louisiana’s famed Atchafalaya Basin is a popular destination for boaters, fishermen, and migratory birds.

The “river of trees,” noted for its magnificent cypress-tupelo swamps, has also been eyed by logging operations, some illegal, for mulch and lately for wood pellets.

A collaborative effort between the bioenergy company and Atchafalaya Basinkeeper (ABK), a non-profit organisation dedicated to protecting and restoring the area’s ecosystems, aims to provide greater protection for these and other valuable forested wetlands.

DBI and ABK initiated the effort after company officials were alerted to the Basin’s unique ecological value by Basinkeeper Dean Wilson.

In the months that followed, the two organisations worked together to agree on a set of sourcing practices that will strengthen environmental protection and promote sustainable use of forest resources.

By committing to these sourcing practices on National Bioenergy Day, DBI and ABK hope to encourage other bioenergy companies to follow suit.

“The irreplaceable cypress and tupelo stands are far more precious as habitat than as timber,” said DBI president and CEO Pete Madden.

“Drax Biomass is committed to sustainable procurement practices, and we believe this commitment should extend to the protection of ecosystems such as the Atchafalaya Basin.”

Working with Catahoula-based ABK, DBI adopted the sourcing principles that it hopes will become standard industry best practices.

ABK has been concerned about logging in wetland forests and the activity’s impact on the sensitive biomes.

“The commitment by Drax Biomass to do business in a way that protects Louisiana’s natural forests and wetlands sets an unprecedented sustainable standard for the natural forestry resources industry in our state,” said Wilson.

“This is a great example of how softwood-based forestry can be compatible with the imperative to protect cypress-tupelo swamps, the Atchafalaya Basin, and other ecosystems.”

‘Room for improvement’

ABK also worries that, as the forestry industry sees more demand from a recovering economy, some natural forests could be harvested and replanted as managed pine plantations, reducing biodiversity in the state.

DBI committed to use southern yellow pine as the primary source material at its pellet manufacturing facilities in Bastrop, Louisiana, and Gloster, Mississippi.

Drax also committed to not source material from land that is being converted from natural hardwood forest to plantation, or from land that has undergone such conversion since 2008.

DBI does not operate its own timberlands and sources thinnings and other low-grade wood from landowners within a 70-mile radius of the two plants.

The sourced material also includes wood chips and other residuals from local sawmills.

The vast majority of DBI’s feedstock will be comprised of southern yellow pine, although some hardwood fibre may occasionally enter the supply chain.

“Our landowners and suppliers have a long history of practicing sustainable forest management, and they take great pride in the stewardship of the environment,” Madden said.

“Nonetheless, our industry has room for improvement, and so I hope our commitments to ABK will encourage others in the bioenergy industry and broader forestry sector to seek out similar opportunities for collaboration.”

Drax Biomass is a subsidiary of the UK-based Drax Group, and supplies its pellets worldwide, including to the Drax biomass plant in the UK.

See original article here.

https://bioenergyday.com/516-2/

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Curran Renewable Energy opens doors for National Bioenergy Day tour

By BOB BECKSTEAD
[email protected]
PUBLISHED: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2016 AT 12:30 AM

curran-tour-1

MASSENA — Curran Renewable Energy opened its doors for a tour Wednesday as part of the fourth annual National Bioenergy Day.

They were one of nearly 50 organizations throughout the United States that took part in Bioenergy Day activities to demonstrate the many benefits that bioenergy provides on the local level and the important role that biomass energy, particularly wood energy, can play in supporting stronger rural economies and a healthy environment.

Bioenergy is the use of any organic material, such as forest thinnings, residues, agricultural waste or urban wood waste to generate heating, cooling, electricity or fuels. Curran Renewable Energy has been producing renewable biofuel for several years, offering premium wood pellets as a viable renewable energy fuel source. Their premium wood pellets power stoves and other appliances in homes and businesses to reduce heating costs and save energy resources.

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Patrick Curran, president of Curran Renewable Energy and Seaway Timber Harvesting, said their business fluctuates based on the price of fossil fuels, but they’re holding their own right now.

“We’re running at about 60 percent capacity,” said Mr. Curran, who led Wednesday’s tour along with Marketing Manager Kelli Curran and Plant Manager Dan Measheaw.

Curran Renewable Energy was established in 2009, and they purchase the necessary feedstock from their sister company, Seaway Timber Harvesting, which allows them to control the supply, species and what part of the trees end up in their products.

Visitors who participated in Wednesday’s tour had an opportunity to see the production process up close as Mr. Curran explained each step.

Crews remove branches and flail chipper to remove bark, leaving clean green stems to be chipped for wood pellet production.

The clean green chips are then ground and put through a dryer before they’re ground again into sawdust. The sawdust is then extruded into pellets with pure compression and no additives. Wood pellets then pass through two shaker screens to remove sawdust and loose fines.

“The more softwood the product, the cleaner it is,” Mr. Curran said.

Part of the tour included information about CSX rail cars that were sitting near the Commerce Drive plant. Mr. Curran said that, with the help of the state and the Business Development Corporation for a Greater Massena, they were able to capture some funds to put in a rail spur at the north end of the property. The rail spur is used by the company, and is available to any other business that needs rail service, he said.

“It will be valuable to the community,” he said.

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Visitors also heard about a new furnace that was built and installed by Torbel Energy and Environment, Portugal. It was produced in Portugal and shipped to the United States in 54 containers.

Mr. Curran said the design of the furnace, which has a thermal capacity of 15 megawatts and has just become operational, will allow them to have the cleanest product on the market. Multi-cyclones on the new machine capture ash and burning particles so it produces a cleaner wood.

“Without the furnace, we can’t do anything,” he said. “We’re only using half of it. We’re getting all the heat we need.”

Read article on original page here.

https://bioenergyday.com/511-2/

Woody Biomass Facility Opens Their Doors to Educate Public on Bioenergy Day

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resources and energy

BY KAHTIA HALL, EYEWITNESS NEWS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19TH 2016
bakersfield

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — Wednesday marks the fourth annual Bioenergy Day. This day was made possible by the county of Kern and the city of Bakersfield, declaring the day as a way to recognize renewable energy producers across the nation and educate the public about biomass as an energy source.

In light of the day, Mt. Ponos Cogeneration Company and its partners, DTE Energy Services and Macpherson Energy Corporation decided to host a walking tour of its woody biomass facility. During this walk around, people had the opportunity to learn how wood is converted to energy. With the help of wood transported from miles agricultural and landfill spaces, it is chopped into tiny pieces, put on a conveyor belt and brought to combustion where it turns into energy.

The plant opened in 1989 where at the time, they burned coal, and tires. They decided to make the switch to woody biomass almost five years ago. They say this change creates less emissions and eases space in landfills.

“When you see a orchard being knocked down for replanting we will take that wood chip it, grind it, and screen it and bring it to process through the boiler and the combustion process to generate electricity. We also take landfill diversion wood from Kern County and Los Angeles county,” said Stu Welch.

Mt. Ponos employs 38 Kern County residents, and supplies hundreds of local jobs throughout the year. It delivers 44 megawatts of renewable energy to the grid, powering over 40,000 homes.”

Read article on original page here.

Missoula celebrated National Forest Week

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Wednesday is National Bioenergy Day – National Forest Products Week

By Peter Christian October 19, 2016 1:59 PM

Read More: Wednesday is National Bioenergy Day – National Forest Products Week | http://newstalkkgvo.com/wednesday-is-national-bioenergy-day-national-forest-products-week/?trackback=tsmclip

On Wednesday, National Bioenergy Day, part of National Forest Products Week, is the time the U.S. Forest Service is emphasizing the importance of wood energy to Montana and to the entire country.

Regional Wood and Biomass Utilization Coordinator for Regions One and Four of the U.S. Forest Service said the week and the special day were set aside to honor all those involved in the wood and timber industries.

“Today (Wednesday) there was an open house at Sustainable Lumber Company on Stockyard Road, where they opened up their showroom to people,” Kies said. ” The University of Montana campus has urban tree tags all around the campus that show the value and benefit of urban trees in our environment. This Friday, the Missoula Chamber of Commerce is doing a timber tour from the forest to the building, and they’ll be going up Pattee Canyon to see an active forest management project up there. Then, they’ll head over to the new Missoula College building on East Broadway where they’ve integrated some Montana wood that is actually under construction there.”

Kies said there are hundreds of people employed in the wood products industries in Western Montana.

“In terms of the economy, there are a lot of jobs involved in the forest products industry,” she said. “Everything from the foresters who are putting together forest management projects and all the resource specialists in between, to the folks who are doing the harvesting to the truckers who are hauling to the mills that are actually processing the timber and then trucking it back to folks”

Kies also included the building and construction industry as part of the mix in wood products.

“The building and construction sector is utilizing that wood, as well,” she said. “All told, statewide, I know there’s a $320 million impact in wages last year that west to the Montana Forest Products Industry, so that’s a lot of people and families and communities that rely on that income, and also help us with the wood products that we need.”

The Forest service touted that fact that Libby and Seeley Lake have changed out hundreds of inefficient older wood stoves over the past several years and replaced them with cleaner burning, high-efficiency wood and pellet stoves.

In addition, public lands the Forest Service manages contribute more than $13 billion to the economy each year through visitor spending alone.”

Read article on the original page here.

Read More: Wednesday is National Bioenergy Day – National Forest Products Week | http://newstalkkgvo.com/wednesday-is-national-bioenergy-day-national-forest-products-week/?trackback=tsmclip

Michigan Energy Generation is at a Turning Point

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pure-michigan-forests“Biomass power can prevent energy shortfall

Gary Melow and Larry Ward 11:26 p.m. EDT October 18, 2016

Today is the fourth annual National Bioenergy Day — a day dedicated to shining a light on the many economic, infrastructural, and environmental benefits of bioenergy production in the U.S.

On this day we would like to have a conversation about Michigan’s energy future, and the important role that Michigan biomass power can and should play in a “no regrets” energy policy.

With the retirement of multiple aging coal power plants over the next several years, Michigan could face an energy capacity shortfall starting as soon as next year. Regulators at the Public Service Commission and officials at the Michigan Agency for Energy continue to warn the legislature of the significant consequences that will result from a failure to pass a comprehensive energy policy.

An energy capacity shortfall is unacceptable and indeed avoidable.

We need a Michigan-first energy policy that not only accounts for this impending loss in baseload capacity but makes Michigan a leader in reliable, cost-effective renewable energy.

Biomass power is produced from local resources, provides local jobs and supports local communities, giving new meaning to the phrase homegrown renewable energy. It does all this while helping to stabilize the electrical grid — especially in rural areas that need it most — which improves reliability for everyone in the state.

Biomass power is also cost-effective for ratepayers. In fact, the state’s independent biomass power producers have been operating for 30 years at the same cost as utility power, which puts no additional cost on Michigan ratepayers.

Better yet, biomass power is cost-competitive with traditional fossil fuels and other forms of renewable energy, but it supports more jobs per kilowatt hour than wind or solar; up to 3.5 full-time jobs per megawatt of generation capacity.

What truly sets biomass power apart though is its unique ability to produce and “store” electricity in the form of on-site renewable fuel, allowing electricity to reach Michigan homes and businesses when needed and on demand.

Among the many environmental benefits, bioenergy’s contributions to forest health and stewardship in particular are recognized by the U.S. Forest Service. USFS understands the immense role that biomass power can play in helping to reduce the risk of wildfire by providing a safe, affordable outlet for dead trees and other “fuel loads” in our Pure Michigan forests. Without the removal of this excess wood by biomass power facilities, the risk of forest fires that can inflict damage upon our natural resources and the communities that surround them would be significantly higher.

A true “no regrets” policy must utilize existing and future biomass power capacity to protect ratepayers from a capacity shortfall, all the while keeping energy costs low, supporting local business, and ensuring that Michigan residents will have electricity whenever they flip a switch.

Gary Melow is the director of Michigan Biomass. Larry Ward is the executive director of the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum.” 

See here for complete link to site.

PRESS RELEASE: Today, October 19, is the Fourth Annual Bioenergy Day

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 Biomass Power Association Marks Fourth Annual Bioenergy Day with 40 Events Held in United States, Canada 

October 19, 2016 – Washington, DC – In honor of the Fourth Annual Bioenergy Day, more than 40 organizations across the United States and Canada are opening their doors today to local residents and stakeholders, inviting them to learn more about an industry that provides significant environmental and economic benefits. Bioenergy Day participants include businesses representing all types of bioenergy – power, thermal and fuels – in addition to state and local governments and universities.

“Bioenergy Day participants in the United States and Canada today are helping their local communities better understand bioenergy and the many benefits it brings,” said Bob Cleaves, President and CEO of Biomass Power Association. “There are abundant sources of discarded organic materials that can serve as fuel for carbon beneficial electricity, heating, cooling and other uses. For the fourth year, Bioenergy Day is continuing to grow, counting participants across many states, provinces and bioenergy applications. We are grateful to our sponsors, particularly the U.S. Forest Service, for their dedication to raising awareness about the role of bioenergy in communities across the nation,”

Bioenergy Day sponsors include Biomass Power Association, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office, Drax Biomass, Pellet Fuels Institute, U.S. Industrial Pellet Association, Hearth Patio and Barbecue Association, Enviva, Biomass Thermal Energy Council and Biomass Magazine.

To learn more or to see a full list of events, please visit www.bioenergyday.org.

View our 2016 Bioenergy Day video on biomass in California, produced in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, .  

For updates on Bioenergy Day and news on biomass, follow @USABiomass on Twitter, or search for the hashtag #bioenergyday.

National Bioenergy Day is made possible by contributions from: