Date: May 27, 2010
Source: American Renewables
American Renewables (Boston, MA) and the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center won approval for their joint 100-megawatt biomass power plant from Florida's Public Service Commission. The plant, which is expected to be operational by year-end, will utilize a variety of waste wood materials to provide power to about 70,000 homes in the Gainesville area. American Renewables will build, own and operate the facility and will sell all energy and associated environmental attributes to Gainesville Regional Utilities under a 30-year contract. "The PSC has taken an important step today toward significantly expanding Florida's commitment to renewable energy," said Jim Gordon, CEO of American Renewables. "The Gainesville Renewable Energy Center will bring reliable, cost-effective renewable energy to GRU customers and spur significant economic development in north central Florida."
FROM COMPANY WEBSITE:
American Renewables is developing a new 100 MW wood-fired biomass electric generating project outside of Gainesville, Florida.
The Gainesville Renewable Energy Center will consist of a wood fuel handling system, a bubbling fluidized bed boiler, a condensing steam turbine generator with an evaporative cooling tower and auxiliary support equipment. The project will employ the latest in boiler and emissions control technology to achieve the best available emissions.
The Gainesville Renewable Energy Center will be consistent with renewable energy and climate change policies espoused by Florida Governor Charlie Crist, the Florida Legislature and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. In July 2007, Governor Charlie Crist signed three Executive Orders committing Florida to reduce greenhouse gases and increase energy efficiency. The Executive Orders require the state government to develop a governmental carbon scorecard and work to reduce governmental emissions, direct the adoption of maximum emission levels of greenhouse gases for electric utilities and request that the Public Service Commission adopt a 20 percent Renewable Portfolio Standard by 2020.
In April 2008, the Florida Legislature passed a comprehensive energy bill that ordered the Public Service Commission to develop a Renewable Portfolio Standard. A 30-year PPA has been executed with Gainesville Regional Utilities along with a long-term lease for an approximately 130 acre parcel
of land adjacent to GRU's existing Deerhaven facility. American Renewables anticipates that construction on the project will begin in 2010 and the project will be commercially operable in 2013.
The project will be fueled by biomass, including forest residue from the surrounding, heavily wooded areas of northern Florida, wood processing residues and clean municipal wood waste. The project will require approximately one million tons of fuel annually, sourced within a 75-mile radius of the project site. A comprehensive fuel study by an independent forestry consultant has confirmed that fuel resources within this radius are more than adequate to fuel the project.
More information about the project is available at www.amrenewables.com.
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