91视频

Schneider Electric and Clark County thought the high volume of logging and forest activity in southwest Washington would make Vancouver, Wash., the ideal place to build a new biomass facility. Turns out, they may be wrong.

Since announcing in July that they were forming a partnership to build the plant, the county and the electricity technology company have run into several challenges. The most immediate was opposition from local neighborhoods and city planning officials armed with a list of zoning and environmental concerns.

But now there’s another snag in the plans: a hike in the cost of the locally sourced 鈥� and once relatively cheap 鈥� woody fuel supply.

If it moves forward, the 5-megawatt plant will be fueled by forest logging slash from privately owned properties within a 50 mile radius. In a feasibility study conducted this past spring, Vancouver consulting firm LD Jellison concluded that biomass would be cheaper to operate than the county’s existing natural gas-powered boilers.

Dave Sjoding, a renewable resources specialist at Washington State University who served as a third party expert in the study, said the facility would use logging residue that is usually burned in slash piles.

鈥淚t’s just wasted up in the woods,鈥� he said.

But the Washington State Department of Ecology was recently called upon to clarify the statutes related to wood fuel and waste for an environmental analysis of another project, in the Puget Sound region. The resulting paper stated that wood fuel is not solid waste, which means, among other things, that the products are taxable.

鈥淚t’s an interesting turn of events,鈥� Sjoding said. 鈥淚t changes the rule book under which forest biomass functions 鈥� it’s not a waste stream headed to a landfill or being burned in the woods. Now the state of Washington decided it’s an actual product and said hey, let’s tax it.鈥�

Peter Lyon, solid waste and financial assistance supervisor in the Department of Ecology’s southwest regional office, clarified that no changes were made to the code. It was just a clearing up of terminology as it is applied to environmental impact statements. Still, Washington’s biomass industry will be impacted.

鈥淪ix months ago (the forest debris) was not a taxable product, but now it is,鈥� said David Palmer, Schneider Electric’s project manager. 鈥淚t doesn’t help the project’s economics, but I think we can work around it.鈥�

The company is still conducting due diligence for the plant and has not contracted for any feedstock yet, so the final economic impact is still up in the air. But finding fuel suppliers willing to commit to longterm contracts might be more difficult.

鈥�(Schneider) is figuring out how to find a supplier for the next 20 years, so we need to figure out how much they are going to charge for the fuel and whether the projected pro forma works with that,鈥� said Marlia Jenkins, program development manager in the Clark County budget office. Jenkins said the project could create up to 25 forest jobs in the region.

The project, expected to cost approximately $25 million, would modify an existing building located at the intersection of West 13th and Ingalls streets.

Schneider would build, lease, and operate the plant, which would provide central heating, cooling and hot water for five county buildings: the courthouse, jail, 911 center, Public Service Center, and juvenile courthouse.

Headquartered in France, Schneider Electric has focused mainly on institutional buildings in the U.S. because even on a site that the company considers most suitable, there is still a great deal of opposition.

鈥淥verseas in Europe, (biomass) has been a big part of our energy projects, but here it’s not as widely adopted,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hese projects are only a good fit in certain places, and this place is basically ideal in Clark County. It’s almost one of those things where, if we were to imagine the perfect site, it wouldn’t get much better than what we have now.鈥�