News-Press.com

Company looks to build Florida’s first biomass gas plant in Tallahassee

By Bruce Ritchie
news-press.com Tallahassee bureau

May 6, 2008

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/GREEN/80506024/-1/NEWS0103index.html

TALLAHASSEE — A Georgia company wants to build Florida’s first biomass gas plant at a Florida State University industrial park in Tallahassee.

Gov. Charlie Crist last year proposed requiring that 20 percent of Florida’s future energy needs come from renewable sources, which he says includes such biomass plants.

Biomass Gas & Electric LLC proposes to heat wood chips to convert them into gas, which will be burned to produce electricity. The wood chips will arrive in about 100 railroad cars every seven to 10 days.

The company already is behind on getting its state permits. The city of Tallahassee, which will buy the 42-megawatts produced by the plant, has agreed to extend the company’s deadline for getting the permits by six months —with the understanding that the plant still will begin operating in 2010.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Friday asked BG&E, located in Norcross, Ga., for additional information on the permit, which was submitted on April 3.