PORT ANGELES — A new steam boiler and turbine generator will make Nippon Paper Industries USA more efficient, cut air pollution by 19 percent and produce 20 megawatts of energy from forest waste, business and civic leaders were told Monday.
The $71 million green energy project will also create 20 permanent jobs, up to 90 construction jobs and help keep existing jobs at the paper mill on Marine Drive, mill manager Harold Norlund told the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“We believe we’ve got a good project here,” he said.
Norlund detailed the project to an audience of about 100 at the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant.
The cogeneration plant will turn the residue from logging operations — which would otherwise be burned on site or left to rot — into power.
The electricity will be sold to potential customers, including the Clallam Public Utility District.
“We would use the heat from the process for our paper mill and generate electricity,” Norlund said.
“It does generate clean, renewable electricity. We believe it also improves our rural economy.”
Norlund announced the project Aug. 6 after it was approved by the board of directors of Nippon Paper Group, the Tokyo-based parent company.
The project is now in the environmental permitting stage.
The nearly 200-employee Port Angeles mill — which makes paper used for telephone books, other custom paper and newsprint (including the paper on which you’re reading these words) — expects to start construction in November.
The target launch of the generator is mid-2012.
Once the project is up and running, half of the power used at the paper mill will come from biomass, Norlund said.
The other half will come from hydropower through Bonneville Power Administration.
Demand for energy continues to rise as the population grows, Norlund said, and the U.S. population is expected to swell from 309 million to 335 million by 2020 and 420 million by 2050.
Washington voters approved a ballot initiative in 2006 that requires power companies to obtain 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020.
Nippon’s project includes the shutdown of an existing boiler and replacing it with the biomass boiler.
It plans two 5,000-square-foot buildings to house the boiler and turbine generator, as well a 3,000-square-foot building to house air pollution control equipment.
Fuel for the turbine will be stored in a 14,000-square-foot triangular building.
An air quality advocacy group in Jefferson County has raised questions about the proposed installation of a similar cogeneration incinerator that burns wood chips at the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill.
“We all know there’s questions here on biomass neutrality,” Norlund said.
“Most scientists do consider carbon dioxide from biomass to be carbon neutral because it’s a quick cycle.
“The debate on neutrality is ongoing at the state, national and local levels. But if you just go back to the basic question: What are viable alternatives to fossil fuels?”
Biomass is more reliable than solar, wind and geothermal sources, Norlund said, before reading statements in support of biomass from the California Public Utilities Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Citing data from the Department of Natural Resources, Norlund said 30,000 tons of forest products are burned in Clallam County every year.
“This would be burning it in a controlled environment and getting some benefit out of it,” he said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
