A Sequim legislator hopes to see a biomass power plant slated for Western Washington built on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Public utility consortium Energy Northwest and private energy company Adage said they will build a biomass power plant in Western Washington as early as 2012 — but an exact location has not been determined.
Energy Northwest and Adage signed a preliminary agreement on Wednesday to develop a biomass power plant — which generate electricity through burning wood waste, such as from logging and mill operations — in four states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.
Rochelle Olson, Energy Northwest spokeswoman, said the plant in Washington will be built on the western half of the state but added that it’s too early to say where the Peninsula ranks on a list of possible locations.
Olson said choosing a location will take at least eight weeks.
Peninsula ideal
Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, said the Peninsula would be ideal for a biomass plant.
“There is only so many places this could work. The Peninsula is certainly one of them,” he said.
Van De Wege said locating a biomass power plant on the Peninsula would be a win-win for renewable energy and the timber industry.
“I think that there is a lot of promise,” he said.
“I think that the timber industry needs it. It creates family-wage jobs based around energy.”
Van De Wege said that both the Port Townsend Paper mill in Port Townsend and Nippon Paper Industries USA Co. mill in Port Angeles burn wood waste to create steam for their pulping processes.
Biomass electricity can be created by using that steam to power a turbine.
Van De Wege and Sen. James Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, introduced legislation last week to encourage the development of biomass energy in the state.
House Bill 2165 and Senate Bill 5979 would create two biomass pilot projects, one on the west side and another on the east side of the state.
But rather than the fuel being transported to a power plant, Hargrove said last week that these proposed projects would involve the energy being created at logging sites and transported in fuel cells.
Both state lawmakers and House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, represent the 24th District, which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and a portion Grays Harbor County.
More details
Olson said the plant will be built within 50 miles of the fuel source.
She said the source of the fuel hasn’t been determined, but it is likely that 50 to 60 percent will come from one supplier.
Olson said that the plant will likely be built on private land, though forest timber land will be considered.
“We will be beginning with private landowners,” she said.
Each plant built by Energy Northwest and Adage would generate about 50 megawatts of electricity, or enough to supply 40,000 households in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.
The electricity would be delivered by Energy Northwest to its 24 member utilities — which includes Clallam County Public Utility District — and other regional utilities.
Although biomass is generated from wood waste from logging and mill operations, Van De Wege said that doesn’t mean that logged forestland would be stripped of all decaying wood.
Van De Wege said environmentalists have voiced concern that ecosystems would be damaged if there wasn’t any decaying wood left to replenish the soil.
“We can’t take out all of the wood out there,” he said. Nobody’s aiming to do that.”
Vic Parrish, chief executive officer of Richland-based Energy Northwest, told The Associated Press that the cost of power generated from wood waste would be competitive with other renewable sources such as wind and solar.
Gov. Chris Gregoire told the Tri-City Herald in Richland that the planned operation fits the state’s environmental and clean energy goals.
“I have said, let us not duplicate what the corn belt did — raising feed stock (for fuels) and competing with food sources,” Gregoire said. “I have said, ‘Let’s look to waste.’ So they are right where we are.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
