Hip, Hip Hooray!!!!
Congratulations to Eagle Valley Clean Energy LLC!!!
Just in time as the Coloradoan reports that pine beetles are now mating twice yearly.
This biomass plant will be a huge boon to Gypsum.
Derek Franz:
"GYPSUM, Colorado — On Tuesday, Gypsum Town Council approved annexation, zoning and other agreements that prepare the way for a biomass power plant to be built next to the American Gypsum plant north of U.S. Highway 6.
Eagle Valley Clean Energy LLC is the entity behind the plan. It includes some Eagle County residents and Dean Rostrom, who has been the primary spokesperson for the group, which is based in Provo, Utah.
A biomass plant burns biological material to produce electricity. That is most commonly done by heating water with the burning material to produce steam, which turns a turbine that produces electricity, a process referred to as direct combustion. Biomass plants are most prevalent along the Pacific coast, and assuming it is built, Gypsum's will be the first commercial-grade biomass power plant of its kind in Colorado.
In terms of its carbon footprint, Rostrom said a biomass plant is considered carbon neutral because its fuel regrows, as opposed to being mined like coal...." (Read more? Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
Showing posts with label beetle kill pine as bio-fuel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beetle kill pine as bio-fuel. Show all posts
February 8, 2012
SandBox Comments: Glenwood Springs Post Independent/James Kellogg "National forests hold the promise of green energy"
See related stories on our local biomass industry here and here)
James Kellogg:
"Green energy is among the myriad reasons to keep our national forests open to the “many uses” intended by the Forest Reserve Act of 1891. Federally owned forests comprise 192 million acres. According to some estimates, nearly 80 percent of this total requires thinning to mitigate risk of fire.
About one third of U.S. energy is used to produce heat. Why not harvest material that might otherwise fuel wildfires and use it to benefit homes, schools, businesses and industry? Cogeneration facilities can even generate economical electricity while producing heat...." (Read more? Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
James Kellogg:
"Green energy is among the myriad reasons to keep our national forests open to the “many uses” intended by the Forest Reserve Act of 1891. Federally owned forests comprise 192 million acres. According to some estimates, nearly 80 percent of this total requires thinning to mitigate risk of fire.
About one third of U.S. energy is used to produce heat. Why not harvest material that might otherwise fuel wildfires and use it to benefit homes, schools, businesses and industry? Cogeneration facilities can even generate economical electricity while producing heat...." (Read more? Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
January 12, 2012
SandBox Comments: Eagle Valley Enterprise "Biomass power plant is taking shape in Gypsum"
Approvals are nearly there!
The first woody biomass power plant in western Colorado.
"A woody biomass power plant is one step closer to becoming a reality in Gypsum after Tuesday's town council meeting.
Members of Eagle Valley Clean Energy LLC presented their plans and asked the council to approve an annexation for a 94-acre parcel directly east of the American Gypsum wallboard plant along the Eagle River.
With council members Dick Mayne and Tim McMichael absent, the rest of the group passed a resolution to initiate the annexation but tabled a vote on the final proceedings until Feb. 28.
If everything goes as planned, the relatively small power plant would only occupy the west end of the property, potentially leaving the rest for open space, and would be operational by 2014. A woody biomass plant burns a variety of wood — “forest waste, agricultural waste and clean urban wood” — to create electricity.
“Colorado has needed something like this for a long time and this plant would be among the first in the state, maybe the first,” said Bill Carlson of EVCE. Carlson is the principal of Carlson Small Power Consultants, and has started biomass plants all over the country. He said the west coast is currently the heaviest user of biomass energy, with about 45 in California.
Per year, Gypsum's plant would produce a gross of 11.5 megawatts and be able to sell 10 megawatts to Holy Cross Energy after using 1.5 megawatts to power itself. A 20-year electricity sales agreement with Holy Cross is already worked out, said Dean Rostrom of EVCE.
“So far, we have a power purchase agreement completed, a site secured and fuel supply studies finished,” Rostrom said...."
(Derek Franz)
(Read more? Click title. Comment to discuss)
The first woody biomass power plant in western Colorado.
"A woody biomass power plant is one step closer to becoming a reality in Gypsum after Tuesday's town council meeting.
Members of Eagle Valley Clean Energy LLC presented their plans and asked the council to approve an annexation for a 94-acre parcel directly east of the American Gypsum wallboard plant along the Eagle River.
With council members Dick Mayne and Tim McMichael absent, the rest of the group passed a resolution to initiate the annexation but tabled a vote on the final proceedings until Feb. 28.
If everything goes as planned, the relatively small power plant would only occupy the west end of the property, potentially leaving the rest for open space, and would be operational by 2014. A woody biomass plant burns a variety of wood — “forest waste, agricultural waste and clean urban wood” — to create electricity.
“Colorado has needed something like this for a long time and this plant would be among the first in the state, maybe the first,” said Bill Carlson of EVCE. Carlson is the principal of Carlson Small Power Consultants, and has started biomass plants all over the country. He said the west coast is currently the heaviest user of biomass energy, with about 45 in California.
Per year, Gypsum's plant would produce a gross of 11.5 megawatts and be able to sell 10 megawatts to Holy Cross Energy after using 1.5 megawatts to power itself. A 20-year electricity sales agreement with Holy Cross is already worked out, said Dean Rostrom of EVCE.
“So far, we have a power purchase agreement completed, a site secured and fuel supply studies finished,” Rostrom said...."
(Derek Franz)
(Read more? Click title. Comment to discuss)
December 29, 2011
SandBox Comments: Summit Daily News "Writers on the Range: A forest management structure that can't cope"
"When my East Coast-based parents came to Breckenridge, Colo., for our family vacation in June this year, my dad couldn't stop exclaiming over the dead trees. Scores of rust-colored lodgepole pines, killed by the bark beetle epidemic, lined pretty much every road we drove down or bike path we pedaled on.
My father, who attended college on a scholarship for pulp and paper mill technology, wondered why the trees weren't being logged and used. One answer is that most of Colorado's lumber mills have been shut down for a long time. But the inability to deal with dead trees is just one in a line of management obstacles facing agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, as it struggles to cope with forest management in this age of disturbance...."
(Stephanie Paige Ogburn)
(Read more? Click title. Comment to discuss)
My father, who attended college on a scholarship for pulp and paper mill technology, wondered why the trees weren't being logged and used. One answer is that most of Colorado's lumber mills have been shut down for a long time. But the inability to deal with dead trees is just one in a line of management obstacles facing agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, as it struggles to cope with forest management in this age of disturbance...."
(Stephanie Paige Ogburn)
(Read more? Click title. Comment to discuss)
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