Press Mention The Atlanta Journal-Constitution January 14, 2008
SACE Quoted
Georgia Power signs deal with biomass plant
In this mention
Georgia Power signed a 20-year contract to purchase 50 megawatts of renewable energy capacity from a biomass-fired plant near Fort Gaines, Georgia, more than doubling its renewable energy portfolio. John Bonitz, a renewable energy expert at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, praised the deal while noting that alternative wood-burning technologies could produce even less pollution. The facility will generate power by burning wood waste and is expected to come online in 2010.
Wood-fired plants put out less sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide than coal-fired ones, they put out no mercury. And they are considered carbon neutral, as long as the wood burned is replaced by new trees.
John Bonitz
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Georgia Power signs deal with biomass plant
By MARGARET NEWKIRK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/15/08
Georgia Power signed a contract this week that will more than double its renewable energy supplies in two years.
And the press release announcing that renewable contract was barely out the door when the company signed another one it isn't ready to talk about yet.
Add both, and the company now has a renewable portfolio three times as big as it was last week.
The contract that the company has officially announced is with Yellow Pine Energy LLC, an affiliate of Summit Energy Partners, and Morris Energy Group.
The 20-year contract commits Georgia Power to buy 50 megawatts of power capacity from a biomass-fired plant the company plans to build near Fort Gaines, Ga.
Overall, the facility will have 110 megawatts of renewable energy capacity when it goes on line in 2010.
One megawatt is enough energy to supply a Wal-Mart shopping center or 250 Georgia residences.
The plant will produce power by burning wood waste, including non-commercial tree species, tree scraps and lumber scraps.
While burning wood in a fireplace -- or in last summer's forest fires -- creates dirty smoke, industrial wood burning does not, said John Bonitz, a renewable energy expert at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Wood-fired plants put out less sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide than coal-fired ones, he said.
They put out no mercury. And they are considered carbon neutral, as long as the wood burned is replaced by new trees.
Burning wood puts carbon in the air. Living trees take it out.
Bonitz congratulated Georgia Power for the Yellow Pine deal, with one caveat: He said other wood power technologies -- like gasifying the wood first -- create even less pollution than simply burning it.
The Yellow Pine contract is Georgia Power's largest to date.
The company said a legislative tax break for renewable fuels, enacted in 2006, helped make them more competitive with traditional fuels like coal and natural gas.
A resource plan approved by the state Public Service Commission last year also encouraged the company to step up its renewable efforts.
The state's electric cooperatives have historically been ahead of Georgia Power with renewable energy. They have 27 megawatts of capacity either already on line or under contract.
With the addition of its Yellow Pine contract, Georgia Power's renewable energy portfolio will be 80 megawatts, or enough to power more than 20,000 homes.
The second contract will take that number up to 130, Georgia Power spokeswoman Lynn Wallace said.
Georgia Power's entire system has a capacity of nearly 16,000 megawatts.