Green Energy News | February 8, 1998

February 8, 1998 – Vol.2 No.45

ENERGIES... week of February 8,1998

POOP POWER. Fibrowatt of London, England would like to solve the State of Maryland's excess chicken manure problem by burning it for power. Chicken farmers on Maryland's Eastern Shore have been spreading manure on fields to fertilize crops. Nutrient run-off from these farms into tributaries has been blamed by environmentalists for an outbreak of the microbe Pfiesteria in the waters. The microbe causes lesions on fish and possibly human illness.

Fibrowatt has two manure-to-electricity biomass plants already on line in the U.K. A third, of the size envisioned for Maryland, is now under construction in Thetford, England. This plant will burn 440,000 tons of chicken manure annually and produce 38.5 megawatts of power, enough to supply a city of 50,000. Maryland's chickens produce about the same amount of manure each year.

EXPANDING INTO BIOMASS. Trigen Energy Corp. has bought Power Sources Inc. (PSI), a biomass-to-energy company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. PSI's plants burn renewable biomass fuels such as wood residues, rice hulls, cotton waste, waste paper and paper mill sludge to make steam. Trigen's expertise is cogeneration - selling steam for heat as well as to drive generators to make electricity for sale to the grid.

As part of the purchase, Trigen will add back pressure steam turbine generators to existing PSI facilities. Electricity from these plants will be available to customers as soon as monopoly-busting electric utility deregulation takes place in the states where PSI operates - North and South Carolina, Mississippi and Tennessee .

Trigen has made a commitment to reduce fossil fuel consumption through higher efficiencies while providing competively-priced energy. The addition of biomass fuel to their operations seems a good match.

RENEWABLES FOR A PENNY. Consumers in the cities of Hillsboro, Oregon City, Sandy, and St. Helen's, Oregon will be able choose energy from renewable and low-impact sources - for only a penny per kilowatt hour. Electric Lite Inc. will offer its Electric Lite Green program to some 3200 residential and business customers under the Portland General Electric Consumer Choice pilot deregulation program.

With Electric Lite Green, customers will get at least 50% of electricity from renewables - wind, solar and geothermal, and other low-impact energy sources such as landfill gas. Another 35% will come from "clean" sources such as natural gas and hydro. The remaining 15% will be provided from nuclear or coal-fired facilities.

On average, customers might pay an additional $7.00 per month with Electric Lite Green.