FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) announced plans to convert a coal-fired power plant along the Ohio River to burn biomass at an estimated cost of $200 million.
The company will repower its R.E. Burger Plant in Shadyside, Ohio, making it one of the largest biomass facilities in the United States. The conversion is expected to be finished in 2012.
“This project will help jump-start the biomass renewable energy industry here in Ohio and also serve as a model for projects throughout the U.S.,” said Ohio Governor Strickland. “In addition to retaining jobs at the Burger Plant, this project has the potential to create additional jobs and investments, particularly as biomass fuel suppliers work to meet the needs of this operation and as other renewable energy projects are developed in Ohio."
The company was facing a March 31, 2009, deadline to determine the future of the plant under the terms of a Consent Decree related to the company’s 2005 New Source Review settlement.
The company had to decide whether to shut the plant down, retrofit it with scrubbers at a cost of about $330 million, or refuel with natural gas or biomass.
The company said it expects to use biomass grown specifically for use as a fuel source. Operating with biomass at the plant will produce lower emissions overall than if it was retrofitted with a scrubber, First Energy said.
The biomass units will have the same generating capacity–312 megawatts (MW)–as the current coal-fired units.
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