Progress Energy to build ("closed loop") biomass power plant (FL)

[jpak]

http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2006/05/01/daily9.html

As part of its ongoing support for renewable energy and developing technologies, Progress Energy Florida has signed a long-term contract to purchase electricity generated by an natural energy source.

Biomass Investment Group, Inc. plans to build an environmentally friendly power plant in Central Florida using a crop known as E-Grass. It will generate about 130,000 kilowatts, or enough to power approximately 83,000 homes. The plant is expected to avoid the need to burn nearly 9 million tons of coal over the 25-year life of the contract.

No financial details were available.

Once constructed, it will be the world's first commercial-scale, biomass power plant using crops grown on site. As a "closed-loop" plant, it will contribute no additional carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by more than 20 million tons over the life of the contract when compared to coal.

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[jpak]

1. More info on E-grass

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/02/florida_company.html

Florida Company Looks to E-Grass as Biofuel Feedstock
20 February 2006

A West Florida company is looking to rent 11,000 hectares (42.5 square miles) of land in the Philippines to grow e-grass as biomass input to a gasification process to produce transportation fuels.

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E-grass usually refers to Miscanthus x giganteus, an infertile hybrid of other species of Miscanthus grasses. Miscanthus is a genus of about 15 species of perennial grasses native to subtropical and tropical regions of Africa and Asia.

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Miscanthus has relatively high yields of 8–15 tons/hectare (3–6 t/acre) dry weight, low moisture content, low mineral content, and a good energy balance and output/input ratio compared with some other biomass options. It requires about 25 inches of water per year to survive, tolerates brackish water, and uses a minimal amount of nutrients from the soil

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have concluded that Giant Miscanthus (Miscanthus x giganteus), a species of elephant grass, could serve as a clean substitute for solid fuel for use in power generation. They predicted that if just 10% of Illinois land mass was devoted to Miscanthus, it could provide 50% of Illinois electricity needs. Using Miscanthus for energy would not necessarily reduce energy costs in the short term, but there would be significant savings in carbon dioxide production.

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[skids]

2. For comparison

In response to the request that Iowa farmers plant 45,000 acres of hemp, the Iowa extension service published a pamphlet entitled "Hemp Production Experiments" in 1944. For the purposes of a market analysis a critical number from this study is the production rate of hemp per acre. An average of 4 sites with a seeding rate of 5 pecks/acre was 3.9 tons/acre of dry retted straw. The production data ranged from 3.1 to 5.0 tons/acre and largely depended on the quality of the soil.

http://www.gametec.com/hemp/mktanalysis.html

As far as mineral content goes I don't know if that's being cited for soil depletion purposes or something to do with the processing. Hemp has a relatively high mineral content (which is why isochanvre works), but not of the type that depletes soils agressively.

I don't know why 25 inches of rain is touted as a benefit, as it's considered high up in Canada, for example:

Hemp requires a lot of moisture. Measurements at Ridgetown College indicate the crop needs 300-400 mm (10-13 in.) of rainfall equivalent. Since that amount of rainfall seldom occurs during the growing season, it is important to make use of early soil moisture and to obtain early ground cover to reduce surface evaporation, as well as to maintain good weed control.

About half of this moisture is required during flowering and seed set in order to produce maximum grain yields. Drought during this stage reduces seed set and produces poorly developed grain heads. Continued drought results in low yields of light grain.

Perhaps someone with farming credidentials could elaborate.

My point is basically that companies are going to try to repackage and resell GM and proprietary breeds for energy production. In reality we don't need them. The better way to go about this is not to farm exclusively for energy, but to farm a high energy yeilding crop that also produces other desireable products.

(Though the oil-producing algae ponds do look attractive.)

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Finally, someone realizes PLANTS are self-reproducing solar collectors! nt

[NNadir]

4. Not to rain on the parade, but this plant is 130 Megawatts.

The ususal spin tricks are here. The plant is reported in kilowatts rather than megawatts to make it seem bigger than it is, and the coal savings is reported over a 20 year period.

In fact one might wonder if there will be a central Florida in 25 years.

Progress Energy's new Harris Nuclear Plant, in North Carolina, which is now through the site selection phase, will be ten times as large, and it won't run out of fuel with every storm surge.

[Ready4Change]

5. True, but interesting anyway.

I hadn't considered the possibilities of using crops as fuel for public utility scale power. I'm typically thinking about them as sources of fuel for transportation needs. I tend to forget the other half of the power draw.