Biomass Power Could Help California's Dying Forests

“There is more capacity out there of fuel than there is for plant use,” says Romena. "So there is nowhere to take the fuel right now."

Fuel normally comes from forest thinning projects, orchard prunings, or urban yard and construction debris. But now California has millions of trees that have died from drought, disease and wildfire. Romena says he constantly hears from landowners hoping to sell their trees.

This pile of wood chips come from branches and small diameter trees that have been removed from forested areas near Lake Tahoe.  Andrew Nixon / Capital Public Radio

“A lot of the small landowners have material that is available that they can’t get rid of through the saw mills," says Romena. "A lot of it is just being decked up in yards throughout several counties here.”

Despite the supply, 22 of California’s 50 biomass power plants are either idle or not-operating. Another nine could shut down between now and the end of next year – including Buena Vista. Utilities that have to buy renewable energy say the problem boils down to cost.

List of biomass power plants statewide that are shut down, idled or operating.   Graphic / California Agriculture/UCANR

“Biomass is significantly more expensive than other renewable resources,” says Lynsey Paulo with PG&E, the largest buyer of biomass in California.  “It’s not that biomass got more expensive, what’s happened is that biomass has stayed flat and other renewable resources have actually come down in price.”

Prices for solar and wind power have dropped dramatically in the last five years. Biomass plants can’t compete even though they can provide power at all hours of the day. It leaves utilities with little incentive to renew biomass contracts.  

“They have only two choices and that’s to eat into what they have available for funds or charge a customer,” says Steve Catemarti, the plant manager at Buena Vista.

Utilities don’t want their ratepayers to have to bear the cost.  The other problem is that it’s too expensive to get all the dead and dying trees to the remaining biomass plants. Catemarti says if negotiations don’t work out with a utility, his plant can’t afford to stay open.

“There’s roughly 25 positions that exist at the facility, but when you go to the outreaching jobs, it equals almost 150 to 200 per plant,” he says.

 List above shows biomass plants in danger of shutting down within the next year. Tad Mason / CEO TSS Consultants

If more biomass plants shut down, it could cost more than just jobs. Julia Levin with the BioEnergy Association says there are huge environmental costs.

“If those facilities shut down, then we really only have two alternatives, one is to burn the waste, which is a huge air quality impact, the other is to landfill it, which has its own environmental impacts, ”says Levin.

Levin says one solution is to build more small scale biomass plants, under 3 megawatts, closer to the forest, which would reduce transportation costs. But connecting new plants to the grid is expensive for utilities.

If more biomass plants shut down, slash piles like this one near Georgetown, CA will likely be burned instead of taken to a biomass facility to be converted to electricity.  Amy Quinton / Capital Public Radio

Governor Jerry Brown’s executive order is designed to address all these problems by directing the Public Utilities Commission to deal with what Levin calls a crisis.

“This is a statewide crisis for air quality, water quality, and climate change," says Levin. "The Governor was absolutely right in issuing this emergency order and I just hope that the state agencies really treat it like the emergency it is.”

Fewer than half a dozen of these small scale biomass plants exist. It’s estimated that more than 100 would be needed just in the Sierra Nevada. 

Watch below video to learn more about the benefits and problems associated with managing forest biomass.