Recent Articles
India’s Orient Green Power Company Ltd. to add 60MW of biomass power
In India, Orient Green Power Company Ltd. expects to add another 60MW of biomass power to its portfolio during the current financial year. The company currently has 40MW of biomass power in its overall energy mix of 200MW of renewables, of which the remaining is wind power.
In presentations made as part of the company’s IPO-related [...]
India company fires up 1.5mW anaerobic power plant
In India, Energen has fired up its anaerobic digester biomass power plant in Salem, Tamil Nadu that will produce 1MW of electricity by September and 1.5MW by October using chicken manure as a feedstock.
There is sufficient chicken litter feedstock available within 35 km of the plant to support in excess of 10MW/h of renewable electricity [...]
Xcel Energy to develop a 30 kW pilot-scale biomass power system
In North Dakota, Xcel Energy has teamed with the University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) to develop a 30 kW pilot-scale biomass power system that combines a microturbine and biomass gasifier. According to, Phillip Hutton, Ph.D., Research Manager at the EERC, “For residue biomass, where the cost of the biomass is [...]
Manitoba hearings may make the approval process for clean energy systems simpler
In Canada, Manitoba provincial government is planning to hold public hearings on new regulations to simplify the approval process for clean-energy systems such as biomass. Officials said the goal of the proposed changes is to encourage more use of biomass material as a fuel source, replacing fossil fuels such as coal.
The province has posted the [...]
Opinion: biomass facility is “an attempt to utilize a locally renewable and currently dying resource”
Tom Richard, Director of Penn State’s Institutes of Energy and the Environment: “The push-pull between economies of scale for conversion facilities and diseconomies of scale for feedstock supply chains suggest three distinct business models for biomass feedstock supply: independent local suppliers, large contiguous plantations and regional or global commodity markets.”
Kristen Bertuglia, the town of Vail’s [...]
Kentucky company to petition decision against biomass plant
In Kentucky, Liberty Green Renewables LLC have filed a petition in district court to overturn a July zoning decision against plans for a 32MW forestry waste-based biomass power facility near Scottsburg. The petition claims that the ruling violated state law by first approving plans for the power plant in August 2009 and then voting down [...]
Washington biomass plant finds supplier
In Washington state, a biomass supply agreement with timber company Green Diamond Resource Company has been signed by Adage, a biopower joint venture between Areva and Duke Energy, for its $250 million, 55MW biomass power plant near Shelton. Green Diamond will remove the woody biomass, ensuring compliance with Washington forest practice regulations and the Sustainable [...]
FirstEnergy to re-design boilers in Ohio coal power plant
In Ohio, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has approved FirstEnergy’s application to re-design the boilers at its 312MW Shadyside coal power plant to use 80% biomass, sweeping aside arguments from environmentalists and a wind industry trade group that burning trees to make power is not sustainable.
More on the story.
Forth Energy begins to plan 100MW biomass-fired power plant
In the UK, Forth Energy has applied for planning permission for a 100MW biomass-fired power plant in Dundee, Scotland. Forth Energy’s plans to construct four 100MW plants — in Edinburgh, Dundee, Rosyth and Grangemouth — are part of a strategic joint venture between Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and Forth Ports. The Dundee plant is [...]
University of British Columbia to install biomass power system
In Canada, Nexterra has signed an agreement to assist the University of British Columbia with supplying and installing a biomass combined heat and power (CHP) system at UBC’s Vancouver campus. This is the first installation of its kind in North America and follows three years of collaboration between Nexterra and GE’s Jenbacher gas engine division.
The [...]
