California Energy Commission awards $5 million for bioenergy power plant project

As part of its Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program, the California Energy Commission awarded a $4.9 million grant for the development of a combined heat and power facility that will produce electricity from forest biomass in Camptonville, California.

The Camptonville Community Partnership (CCP) will implement the project in collaboration with ICF INC., the Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE), University of California Davis, Babcock Power Environmental, Direct Contact, Gaelectric and DE Solutions. The electricity produced at the plant will be sold to Pacific Gas and Electric for use in conjoined businesses.

The three-megawatt (MW) direct combustion boiler steam turbine generating facility will integrate
advanced emissions controls and a low water use condenser. The plant repurposes an old sawmill site and will create 27 new full-time jobs.

“This project takes what is otherwise a high-hazard risk material abundantly available in the local forest and turns it into power and revenue from the associated businesses,” Shawn Jones, CSE senior project manager for technology integration, said. “Our hope is that the project also will serve as a model for biomass utilization that could be applied in other Sierra Nevada communities.”

Years of drought, warm temperatures and bark beetle infestations in California’s Sierra Nevada have created record levels of forest residues, which create a wildfire risk.