The Future was yesterday in Gainesville, FL, where the 100 MW Biomass power plant was finally approved by the PSC Commission on May 27th in Tallahassee). This drawing, from David Ostlie up in Minnesota, is used here to get land owners and managers to think about DRYING their biomass fuel. That bubble is only suggestive of drying although Ostlie does have a whole-tree system he has built. (It’s not an import from Wall St.) We suggest that drying be done COOPERATIVELY through transpirational drying, bundling logging debris and just collecting urban tree debis. Why DRY? Solid fuel is worth more (in Btus) if its dry before being sold to a power plant. It’s not like pulp wood that’s going to get drowned in sulfite liquor anyway. The utility could be induced to pay for woody biomass just as they pay for coal now: on a Btu or heat content basis. The USDA has a Fuel Value Calculator on line for you to see what your air-dried biomass might be worth for electrical generation. It’s available at www.fpl.fs.fed.us/tmu in the “Helpful Links” on our side bar on this page.
A Wood Marketing Coop for small landowners is a Council Project. We have enlisted one of the country’s best coop experts, Bill Brockhouse, of USDA’s Rural Development in D.C. to help us with this large endeavor. Bill has been down three times in 2009 to help us get it going. Bill wrote this for us about Coops:
“Cooperatives are democratically owned and controlled by their members whose benefits are based on their use of the business.
Therefore, business decisions are determined by what is in the overall best interests of the members. Here are some benefits of cooperative membership and how they relate to use:
1. Access to quality supplies and services at reasonable cost.
2. Increased clout in the marketplace.
3. Share in the earnings.
4. Local economy enhanced and protected.”
The Council’s “W2E Outreach” will bring you much more at the Field Days and Small City Workshops about the Coop project. Please stay tuned.