Biomass-fueled plants planned in Oregon

Klamath Falls, Lakeview, among potential sites for power plants fueled by woody pulp

By KATE RAMSAYER

for The Associated Press

BEND — Biomass projects planned for Central and Eastern Oregon could mean a high demand in the future for small trees and the woody leftovers from sawmills. Biomass plants use very efficient technologies, which burn the wood at such high temperatures that it creates less smoke and fewer pollutants.

At the La Pine Industrial Park, Silvan Power Co. is hoping to build a biomass-fueled power plant that would generate 24 megawatts of power. And in Prineville, a sawmill recently received a grant to build a lumber-drying kiln that is fired by wood products.

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have also been working on a biomass power plant and other biomass projects have been proposed in Lakeview and Klamath Falls.

With fossil-fuel prices rising, along with an awareness of the harm that burning them causes, more people are looking to renewable energy sources — including biomass, said Scott Aycock, a program administrator for the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council.

The council is working to help create a market for the small woody material that is in the area, Aycock said, and the council has helped companies such as the Prineville sawmill apply for grants and tax credits.

"With biomass specifically, I think the reason why it's attractive in rural Oregon, especially rural Central Oregon, is it's taking advantage of a resource that we have in abundance these days," he said.

That resource is the small-diameter trees that land managers often want to thin from forests, since they increase the risk of severe wildfires and harm forest health.

Silvan hopes to be on the site of thinning projects, timber sales and other forest activities in Central Oregon, working with public and private landowners to collect the woody material that isn't cut out to be saw timber, said Sandy Lonsdale, vice president in charge of stewardship and fuels for the company, a subsidiary of Vulcan Power Co.

The company did an analysis and found that there is enough forest material within an economically feasible hauling distance of La Pine to produce 47 megawatts of electricity a year, Lonsdale said.

"If you look at the Central Oregon area and its road network and its forest type and forest condition, La Pine is a central gathering place for forest-thinning material," he said.

Silvan Power is proposing a $40 million, 24-megawatt power plant, but Lonsdale said the amount of production could change depending on how much biomass material is available to burn and create electricity.

Silvan has a 10-year power purchase agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric Co., a San Francisco-based energy company, to generate up to 40 megawatts of electricity per year.

Pacific Gas and Electric also has an agreement with a different company to purchase renewable energy from Central Oregon. That proposed project, which would be operated by Davenport Power LLC, would use geothermal energy to generate power west of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument.

Lonsdale said that in addition to generating power, biomass plants reduce air pollution by using small wood material that is often otherwise piled up and burned, and decrease the risk of severe wildfires.

In addition to generating electricity, biomass can be used on a smaller scale to generate heat.

The Prineville Sawmill Co. has bought a biomass-fueled boiler that will heat kilns to dry lumber. Although old mills often used wood for power, today many companies use natural gas, which is increasingly expensive, said Libby Rodgers, of Oregon State University's Crook County Extension Service.

With the sawmill's boiler, for example, the biomass fuel for the first year of operation is expected to cost about $240,000. However, the natural gas needed for the same operation would cost more than $1 million, according to a press release from the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council.

And instead of using natural gas, companies are using something available locally — woody material, Rodgers said.

"At this small scale, we're hoping to see a lot more of it," she said of biomass use.

The Prineville sawmill received a $44,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the project. The grant covers about a quarter of the costs and is meant to help small rural businesses create renewable energy projects, said Aycock, with the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council. The council is also helping the sawmill apply for tax credits from the state.

"It makes an impact on the viability of a project like that," he said.