Is this power plant in New York?
News doesn’t always hit the archives at 1010wins.
This is the plant:
Fibrowatt LLC: http://www.fibrowattusa.com
Excerpt:
Fibrowatt Ltd. was founded by British businessman Simon Fraser and his family, who sold their three British litter-fueled plants in 2005 so they could concentrate on their U.S. business. Fibrowatt LLC, based in the Philadelphia suburb of Newtown, Pa., is now led by Fraser’s son, Rupert Fraser.
Fibrowatt LLC is planning projects in several other major poultry states. Rupert Fraser said they will likely include three plants in North Carolina, one or two in Arkansas, and one each in Maryland and Mississippi.
In Georgia, another developer, Earth Resources Inc., plans to break ground soon on a chicken litter-burning plant near Carnesville. That 20-megawatt project drew a $29 million loan guarantee from the Rural Utilities Service, a federal agency within the Department of Agriculture.
“We’re big on renewables right now,” said James Andrew, administrator of the RUS.
One longtime critic of the poultry litter plants has been David Morris, executive director of the Center for Local Self-Reliance, a Minneapolis-based think tank that focuses on helping communities get the most from their resource bases.
Morris said burning turkey litter squanders a resource that’s more valuable as a nitrogen-rich organic fertilizer than as kilowatts. And he said Xcel Energy’s customers will pay higher rates because the electricity from Fibrominn will cost more than wind power or conventionally produced power.
“From a public policy perspective, this stinks,” he said.
The nitrates in poultry litter are destroyed when it’s burned. Morris pointed out that farmers who raise nitrogen-hungry crops such as corn typically use fertilizer produced from natural gas. He said it would make much more sense for the environment to use poultry litter. He noted that in the rapidly growing organic sector, farmers can’t use chemical fertilizers.
Xcel’s Wilson countered by saying all energy costs are going up, and developing new technologies costs money. He said Fibrominn has an advantage over wind power because the plant produce power nearly year-round, while wind turbines work only when the wind blows.
And Chuck Wagoner, the plant’s construction manager, said it’s just “a fact of life” that biomass power costs more than coal power.
In his barn, Langmo said selling litter for fuel gives poultry farmers a new way to add value. Most producers who contract with Fibrominn will get $3 to $5 per ton, which he added is about what they get selling it for fertilizer.
But the advantage, he said, is Fibrominn trucks the litter away all at once. Farmers don’t have to pile it up outside their barns, where it can draw flies and spread odors that bother their neighbors, or put in the added work of spreading it on fields, he said.
The plant itself was a beehive of activity on a recent tour as contractors rushed to meet their deadlines. Welders and grinders sent sparks flying, while loaders sped around outside smoothing the dirt so the paving crews could come in.
Showing off the plant, Wagoner said it’s a substantial advance over the original litter-burning plants Fibrowatt built in Britain.
“This is the Cadillac,” Wagoner said.