A $16 million loan guarantee from the
U.S. Department of Agriculture announced
Monday will help to build a 20-megawatt
wood-burning electrical power plant outside
Snowflake.
The $23 million biomass facility will use
wildfire-damaged wood from the Rodeo-Chediski
fire, waste-wood from a nearby paper mill
and trees from federal forest-thinning
projects for fuel. The project, expected to
be fueled for 30- years, marks the first
time the USDA has made a commitment for a
loan guarantee through its Rural Development
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
program.
Arizona Public Service Co. and
Salt River Project will each purchase 10
megawatts of power generated at the
facility. The power created there can power
approximately 20,000 homes in the White
Mountains.
The plant will operate similarly to a
coal burning plant, where the burned fuel
powers a turbine. This plant is expected to
have 97 percent fewer emissions than a
forest fire, and in essence be nearly
emission-free.
"We're putting the fire into a controlled
environment," said Robert Worsley, owner of
White Mountain Power LLC, the firm
building the plant. "There will be no visual
smoke from our stacks."
Worsley said he expects the plant to be
built by the end of 2006 and working at full
capacity by the beginning of 2008. White
Mountain Power has already hired 75 people
to begin hauling usable wood out of the
forest, and about six more will be hired
before the plant opens.
The USDA is guaranteeing 70 percent of
its loan, and
Comerica Bank is also is backing the
rest of the $16 million. In addition,
Worsley is putting up between $7 million and
$10 million of his own money into the
project.
The cost of the power generated at the
new plant is expected to be between 7 and 8
cents per kilowatt. Nuclear power is
generally priced at about 2 cents, and coal
at about 4 cents.
"We think we can make a profit at the 7-
to 8-cent level," Worsley said.