Biomass energy market red hot [View All]

[DoYouEverWonder]

April 3, 2005

Three years ago, the fires were going out at Maine's multi-million dollar biomass energy industry.

Most of the 11 plants built across rural Maine in the 1990s to generate electricity from waste wood were off line for months at a time. A couple shut down permanently. By 2002, an industry that had generated enough power to light 250,000 homes, employed hundreds of workers and provided a market for low-grade wood was fighting for its life.

Today, all the surviving plants are running near capacity, or undergoing upgrades worth millions of dollars so they can restart. Developers are planning a new $80 million plant with enough capacity for 40,000 homes, in the same location that a smaller biomass plant was dismantled last year.

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But Hall and other experts caution that the current expansion has limits. These plants swallow more than 1,000 tons of a day of sawdust, waste wood and construction debris, so a reliable supply is critical. Also, developers that once before invested in biomass plants based on projected oil prices and expected public-policy initiatives are weighing the risk of being stung again.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/business/stories/050403biomas.shtml