East Texas is known for its more than 12 million acres of forests. Among the towering pine trees sit many lumber mills, closed because of lack of demand. However, instead of leaving the wood residue unused Zachry’s Engineering Group is turning wood waste into fuel. The project is the 100-MW biomass power plant in Nacogdoches County, Texas.

The Nacogdoches Biomass Power Generating Facility will use logging residue and clean municipal wood waste as its main fuel source, making it one of the largest renewable energy projects in the country and one of Zachry’s biggest such projects.

“This is something that needs to be done right now,” said Senior Project Manager Peter Quist. “For a long time the nation has relied on natural gas-powered plants to meet rising electricity demand, and growth in renewable energy has been limited to inconsistent wind power. Wood-fueled plants use local resources to consistently generate a much-needed renewable source of electricity.”

Note:

Biomass energy is considered to emit zero incremental greenhouse gas by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the Northeast United States and the EU Emission Trading Scheme. This is because the carbon emitted by using biomass as fuel would eventually be emitted through some other mechanism, such as decay.