Header

North Carolina, one of two states in the south with renewable electricity portfolio standards (REPS), is now on a path to create 12.5% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2021. Both wind and solar are limited in the state, so much of this power will need to be produced from woody biomass. Investor-owned utilities must meet the following schedule for conversion: 3% by 2012, 6% by 2015, 10% by 2018 and 12.5% by 2021. Municipal utilities and electricity cooperatives must meet 10% by 2018.

Duke Energy, an investor-owned utility, began testing by burning wood with coal (co-firing) in two of its coal plants, the Buck and the Lee Steam Stations, in order to meet these standards. In order to evaluate co-firing applications and assess plans for meeting the REPS, the company went to the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) to request that its Buck and Lee Steam Stations be designated as renewable energy facilities. Duke expressed its intention to use a range of “wood biomass fuel resources” at the facilities, including wood water materials like logging residues, sawdust, pre-commercial thinnings and primary forest harvest materials like wood chips from whole trees.

For now, biomass power plants will source whole tree chips when a sufficient supply of lower cost wood waste material is not available. As the logger adoption rate increases, the use of whole trees for energy production will diminish. Until the time when biomass utilization is fully sufficient to meet the demand, however, the renewable energy facility status will help ensure they can meet the state standards.

In the end, the NCUC granted Duke’s Buck and Lee Steam Stations renewable energy facility status, a decision that will become final on August 22.