Green Horizons

Here’s the latest information regarding various proposed or ongoing wood energy projects around the State of Missouri. Note that this is not a complete list as some projects that I am aware of have not been publicly announced.

Columbia, Mo. The University of Missouri Energy Plant’s project to replace their outdated biomass boiler with a newer, state-of-the-art unit has begun. At the same time the boiler is being replaced, the facility’s entire fuel material handling system is being rebuilt. Construction of both projects should be completed in the spring of 2012. In the meantime, MU Forestry is working closely with MU Energy to develop a procurement program that will ensure wood fiber coming from harvest residues or forest thinnings are originating in forests managed in a sustainable fashion.

Fuels for Schools. Rolla Public Schools has dropped their proposed project for their junior high building. All of the remaining six projects have let out bids for equipment and construction, and all but one project has awarded contracts. As the projects come online next year, GH will visit each school and report back to our readers.

Kirkwood, Mo. The recession and cheap energy prices have slowed, but not stopped the City of Kirkwood’s wood energy project. The facility being built and operated by Fenton- based Innovative Energy will utilize tree limbs and other municipal wood waste, and will produce 5 MW; enough electricity to power roughly 5,000 homes. In 2007, Kirkwood Green (the name of the city’s green energy project) signed an agreement with Innovative Energy to purchase all of the electricity the plant will produce for the next 30 years. Reported prices for electricity from Kirkwood Green are in the range of $0.060 to $0.065 per KWH; slightly more than the expected $0.055 to $0.060 per KWH for electricity from the new coal-fired facility in southwest Illinois.

Salem, Mo. On Dec. 6, Salem, Mo., aldermen voted unanimously to cease negotiations and decline all proposals from Sedalia-based ProEnergy Services. The project would have locked-in the city for 20 years at a rate of $0.10 per KWH and a rebate of $0.012 per KWH for a net rate of $0.088 per KWH, plus a fuel adjustment index at the base rate of $25 per green ton delivered to the plant. Salem is moving toward participating with a co-op of rural Missouri towns seeking bids from power companies to purchase power in the future. One bid the co-op is presently entertaining ranges from $0.0644 per KWH in 2013 (the year Salem is losing its current contract with wholesale supplier, Sho-Me Power) to $0.0654 per KWH in 2018.

Perryville, Mo. The Liberty Green LLC wood energy project in Perryville, Mo., appears to be in a holding pattern. Although the Missouri Department of Natural Resources released a construction permit this past summer, construction has not begun.