CLEAN AND GREEN
Earth-friendly power station near Sacul will create 500 new jobs
BY ROBIN D. BEST

Tree branches l like these will be a major source of fuel for a new biomass electricity plant near Sacul. These trees on the campus at Rusk State Hospital were trimmed last week for aesthetic purposes. The biomass plant will be operational by 2010.

Before now, Sacul didn't even have its own stop sign.

But the small community northeast of Rusk will soon be home to a 100 megawatt (MW) biomass-fired electrical power generation station.

Just inside the western edge of Nacogdoches County, the new power station will provide economic growth to the area as well as making East Texas more environmentally efficient.

The plant is scheduled to begin initial construction in July, with the first fire on solid fuel being in December 2009 and commercial operation beginning in April 2010.

"The plant will spend about $30 million a year, most of which will stay right in the local area in the form of salaries, property taxes and what we pay for fuel," said Tony Callendrello with Nacogdoches Power.

The power station will produce electrical energy by burning biomass products, such as left over branches and sawdust from the local timber industry.

This biomass-fired electrical power generating station in Alexandra, Va., resembles the one planned near Sacul.

At first glance, burning products such as wood to fuel generators would seem not to be environmentally friendly.

But the facts paint a greener picture.

"We will be using material in the project that would otherwise be burned in open fires, or it would release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the air as it rotted," Mr. Callendrello said. "The United States Department of Energy has determined that a biomass generation station is a 'negative CO2 release project so it is a very positive environmental project."

The plant will include a bubbling fluidized bed boiler with state-of-the-art emissions controls. Approximately one million tons of waste wood products a year will be converted into electricity. A yield study has confirmed a firm supply until the year 2060.

"The plant has met all of the requirements of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality," Mr. Callendrello said. "They found it to represent the best known quality for controlling emissions from a plant like this."

Electrical power generating plants in the United States are regulated very stringently by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure that the environment is protected.

The project will also provide many new jobs to the area.

"Between the people that are employed at the plant and people bringing us fuel, we will create about 500 jobs," Mr. Callendrello said.

Those jobs include about 30 employees that will remain on site to maintain and run the plant. There will be hundreds of people who will collect and transport biomass materials to the plant.

The project is a joint venture between BayCorp Holdings, Ltd., headquartered in Portsmouth, NH, and Energy Management, Inc., located in Boston, Mass.

"We acquired the project while it was still in the development process as a natural gas-burning facility with Steag Power, a German company with a Houston development office," Mr. Callendrello said. "In mid-2005, we determined that given the strong forest products production in the area, this would be a good plan.

"We did a feasibility study, and determined that we could build a 100 MW power plant," he added.

In the last year, Nacogdoches Power has moved into the late development stage, getting permits needed and acquiring site land and easements. Contracts have been signed for the major equipment, including the boiler and turbine/generator.

Currently, construction contract proposals are under discussion. Water rights have been acquired and fuel supply proposals have been received.

Nacogdoches Power has to date approximately $4 million on the project.

"One of the things that we see as a real benefit for the local economy is we are willing to buy fuel from the local loggers, wood materials, to use as a fuel source, long-term," Mr. Callendrello said. "They have not had that advantage before. We feel this is a real benefit for them."

For additional information on the project, see www.nacogdochespower. com.