An $8.3 million biomass plant expected to provide power for two Nevada state prisons has operated only sporadically because of a lack of wood used as fuel.
Nevada Department of Corrections officials had predicted the plant would replace energy from electricity and natural gas at Northern Nevada Correctional Center and the neighboring Stewart Conservation Camp. The plant has not run more than three days straight since it opened six months ago.
"Wood continues to be an issue for us," said Lori Bagwell, department director of support services. "We do not have an adequate and appropriate supply."
The department and Carson City Renewable Resources, hired to provide wood for the plant, said the problem is the lack of supply from the U.S. Forest Service.
The agency sometimes gives limbs and underbrush not used commercially and can be a fire hazard to services that recycle wood. This "biomass" usually is too expensive to move to Carson City to be processed.
"We have the supply," said Ed Monnig, forest supervisor of Humbolt-Toiyabe National Forest. "It's the cost of getting the wood to the plant that's the crux of the matter."
The forest service generally gets rid of the biomass by burning it, grinding it on site or requiring companies that take timber, often in areas the agency wants thinned for fire prevention, also to remove it.
"Generally speaking," Monnig said, "the biomass itself isn't worth enough to pay its way off the mountain."
It's also too expensive for Carson City Renewable Resources to remove biomass from the hills west of the city.
Owner Stan Raddon said the business has received pallets and boards from area manufacturers, but that hasn't been nearly enough for the plant.
"It's hard to describe how (the problem) evolved," he said. "(The Forest Service) just never came through with the wood we'd anticipated we'd receive."
Bagwell expects the plant to be running within a year. The Nevada Division of Forestry recently got a $250,000 grant for equipment that will make it easier to move biomass created by forest-thinning projects to the plant, and that should get the plant a third or up to a half of the biomass it needs, she said.
Bagwell also said the department seek bids soon for more wood, but whether the job will be affordable for companies or the plant is not known.
Corrections department officials had said the region had enough wood to fuel a plant that could save money, help fire prevention and reduce garbage at landfills, and also be productive enough for the plant to eventually make millions of dollars in profits from the sale of excess energy.
The profits were planned to be used in part to pay off the loan the department used to build the majority of the project.
As other officials praised the plant at its grand opening in September, Monnig and Nevada State Forester Pete Anderson cautioned that officials might not be able to rely on the forests for all the biomass needed.
Anderson said recently that he doesn't blame anyone for what has happened with the plant, but that progress "has been extremely slow" and the breakdown "is on federal land."
Why the Department of Corrections built the plant without a more specific plan is not clear.
A 2005 report by Phoenix-based APS Energy Services said the plant could be fueled by unusable wood. That is the same company that built the plant.
"Prior to the construction of the biomass plant at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, we worked with the correctional center to evaluate all factors related to the project, fuel source being one of those," said Damon Gross, an APS Energy Services representative.
"We believe the correctional center made the best decision for the state of Nevada taxpayers with the information that was available at the time the decision was made," Gross said. "We continue to work closely with the Northern Nevada Correctional Center during the final phases of startup."
But Raddon said no company would be able to afford to provide the majority of the biomass needed.
"I'd love for it to happen," he said, "but I haven't seen it in four years."Reno Gazette-Journal
