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While just in the planning stages,
efforts to construct a biomass plant in the Lake Tahoe
Basin received a half-million-dollar boost last week.
On Dec. 26, Placer County officials announced they will
receive federal funding for several county projects,
including almost $500,000 to fund research for a
wood-chip power plant in eastern Placer County.
Called a 'win-win'
Biomass co-generation takes what's
left from forest thinning and burns it to produce power.
Proponents of biomass say the process is a win-win
situation: Forests are cleared of flammable material,
and power is produced.
In addition, smoke produced by controlled burns in the
basin conducted by the U.S. Forest Service and private
residents would be reduced.
According to Placer's 5th District supervisor, Bruce
Kranz, a local biomass plant would do the same job but
produce fewer pollutants.
"This building will be state of the art," Kranz said by
phone. "It is at least 97 percent cleaner than open
burning."
The most probable location for the plant would be at the
Placer County Sheriff's aging substation off Burton
Creek Road, just east of Tahoe City.
"A long time ago, the plans were already in place; the
substation would be torn down and completely rebuilt,"
said Placer senior management analyst Brett Storey.
Another option may be on the semi-industrialized
National Avenue in Tahoe Vista, Kranz said.
Cost: $10 million
The biomass facility still is only
in the planning stages, Kranz said, and the proposed
plant may not be completed until 2012. The total cost of
the small waste-to-energy facility, expected to produce
between 1 to 3 megawatts of electricity, could run $10
million.
A three megawatt plant could potentially power 2,000
homes, according to Jim Turner, operations manager for
lumber giant Sierra Pacific Industries, which operates a
biomass plant near Loyalton.
Constructing the plant close to the fuel source also
should reduce fossil fuel emissions because of reduced
transportation costs, Kranz said.
The future plant is to be funded by a partnership of
private and local entities, including possible funding
from Placer County, Sierra Pacific Resources, the parent
company to Sierra Pacific Power Company, state
government and others, Storey said.
In October, the effort to convert local forest waste
into energy received a $1 million donation from SPI. The
federal funding came out of a spending bill supported by
Rep. John Doolittle and U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and
Barbara Boxer, and signed into law by President Bush
last week.
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