The Wall Street Journal: (Bio)Mass Confusion

OCTOBER 18, 2010

(Bio)Mass Confusion

High costs and environmental concerns have pushed biomass power to the sidelines in the U.S.

By JIM CARLTON

CARSON CITY, Nev.—With all the plants and trees in the world, biomass energy would appear to have boundless potential.

Yet in the U.S., biomass power—generated mainly by burning wood and other plant debris—has run into roadblocks that have stymied its growth.

Here at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, officials in 2007 built a $7.7 million biomass plant to meet all the power needs of the medium-security prison. But last month, two years after the plant opened, prison officials closed it, citing excessive costs.

"This was a project that was well intentioned, but not well implemented," says Jeff Mohlenkamp, deputy director of support services for the Nevada Department of Corrections.

Across the U.S., other biomass projects have met similar fates.

In Loyalton, Calif., Sierra Pacific Industries Inc. on Aug. 20 announced it would close a 16-megawatt plant, citing federal logging restrictions that made it more difficult to get wood from surrounding forests.

In Gunnison, Colo., Western State College of Colorado in July shelved plans to install a biomass boiler on its campus amid high costs for supply and operation. And in Snowflake, Ariz., a local utility, the Salt River Project, canceled a long-term power-buying contract with a 24-megawatt plant after the plant's operator filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July. Another operator has since taken over the facility.

Is It 'Green?'

Biomass power costs more to produce than power derived from fossil fuels, largely because it requires more labor to chip up wood and truck it to plants, industry executives say. They argue that unless the U.S. adopts a national renewable-energy policy requiring utilities to obtain a certain percentage of their power from renewable sources such as biomass, the industry will continue to struggle.

"As long as the biomass industry is forced to compete with coal and natural gas, we will not grow this industry," says Bob Cleaves, chief executive officer of the Biomass Power Association, a trade group based in Portland, Maine.

But also threatening the industry's growth are concerns that biomass power isn't as "green" as supporters say it is.

Backers say biomass power is a carbon-neutral form of energy: The trees that feed biomass plants sequester carbon when they are growing, offsetting the carbon that's released when they are burned for fuel. But some environmental groups have complained that biomass plants spew too much pollution into the air, while others worry that an expansion of biomass energy could lead to excessive logging, claims the industry denies.

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