Technical support of the U.S. DOE Biomass Power Program in the development of biomass to electricity technologies
- National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)
In the USA the period since 1973 to the present, has resulted in a dramatic upswing in bioenergy use and applications uses especially in thermal and electrical applications of mainly wood residues. The wood processing and pulp and paper sectors became about 70% self sufficient in energy in that period and the amount of grid connected electrical capacity increased from less than 200 NM in 1978 to over 7,500 MW, today. This dramatic growth stimulated in part by federal tax policy and state utility regulatory actions, occurred after the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978 guaranteed small electricity producers that utilities would purchase electricity at a price equal to the utilities avoided cost. More than 70 percent of biomass power is cogenerated with process heat. Wood-fired systems account for 88 percent, agricultural waste (3%), landfill gas (8%), and anaerobic digesters (1%). There are nearly 1000 wood-fired plants in the U.S., typically ranging from 10 to 25 MW{sub e}. Only a third of these plants offer electricity for sale. The rest are owned and operated by the paper and wood products industries for their own use. Most of today`s biomass grid connected power installations are the smaller scale independent power and cogeneration systems. To date, utilities have been involved in only a handful of dedicated wood-fired plants in the 40 to 50 MW{sub e} size range, and in some co-firing of wood and municipal solid waste in conventional coal-fired plants.
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-83CH10093
- OSTI ID:
- 420619
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950801-; ISSN 0569-3772; TRN: 97:000005-0055
- Journal Information:
- Preprints of Papers, American Chemical Society, Division of Fuel Chemistry, Vol. 40, Issue 3; Conference: 210. national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Chicago, IL (United States), 20-25 Aug 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Power Sales to Electric Utilities
Feasibility of a small central cogenerated energy facility. Energy management memorandum TM-82-6A