May 29, 2006—Progress Energy Florida recently signed a 25-year contract to buy power from a plant fueled with grassy biomass. Biomass Investment Group, Inc. (BIG) plans to build a 130-megawatt power plant in Central Florida fueled with a crop it calls E-Grass, described as a fast-growing, high-yield perennial that is a member of the grass family.
The company will grow the E-Grass as a dedicated energy crop and then convert it to biogas in its power plant, where the gas will be used to fuel a gas turbine. Once constructed, it will be the world’s first commercial-scale “closed-loop” biomass power plant fueled with crops grown on site, claims the company.
As a closed-loop plant, it will contribute no additional carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by more than 20 million tons over the life of the contract when compared to coal, says the company. Closed-loop biomass power plants are eligible for federal tax credits of 1.9 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced for the first 10 years of power production.
