Catching up on Biomass News

In an attempt to catch everyone up to speed on what has been happening thus far I will be posting articles from various sources about the attempt to locate a biomass plant in the Tahoe Basin. The first few of these are articles from the North Tahoe Citizens Action Alliance website If you want information on other issues near & dear to our hearts you can go and read about those as well. It is a good site and made up of a good group of people primarily an informative site without a lot of posturing or silliness.

This article was in the April 2010 Newsletter:

Biomass Plant in Kings Beach?
Placer County is pursuing the installation of a power plant burning forest residue primarily from thinning operations. The location is next to the current NVEnergy 20 megawatt back-up generating station just north of Speckled Ave. The combustible slash will come from within a 30-mile radius of Kings Beach (much of it outside the Basin to ensure sufficient quantities) to be burned 24/7 to produce 1-3 megawatts of power.
The forest material must be trucked first to the Cabin Creek Disposal Facility (along Hwy 89 near Truckee) for grinding, processing, and storage to ensure adequate fuel feedstock. Two to four large chipper vans will then deliver the material daily via Hwy 267 to the Kings Beach Cogeneration plant for producing electricity, and the waste heat utilized to heat public buildings and possibly sidewalks.
Brett Storey is the project lead for Placer County. In a recent interview he said that the combustion plant could not be located at Cabin Creek because they are already “out of attainment” for air quality emissions. But Kings Beach, in the Tahoe Basin, is in attainment and a plant could be permitted. Placer County is comparing air emissions with the equivalent material being openly burned. They are building
their support coalition and appear intent to push this through in the Basin as a test case. Placer County has received $650,000 to move the facility concept through the pre-development stages. There are also $2.5 million in Federal and State funds "awarded” to assist in construction. NTCAA is committed to following this project and its technical and economic viability. For more information see the Placer County website and click on Biomass.