Biomass Growth Capacity Drops in US

- May 27, 2014, Bioen­er­gy Insight

Five new bio­mass plants with a total gen­er­a­tion capac­i­ty of 10MW came online in the US last month, accord­ing to the Ener­gy Infra­struc­ture Update for April, pub­lished by the Fed­er­al Ener­gy Reg­u­la­to­ry Com­mis­sion (FERC).

Since the start of 2014, 12 bio­mass-fired facil­i­ties pro­duc­ing a total 20MW of renew­able ener­gy have com­menced oper­a­tions. Dur­ing the first four months of 2013, 35 bio­mass units gen­er­at­ing 112MW opened.

This reduced growth in capac­i­ty it not just lim­it­ed to bio­mass-based ener­gy. The report states that in April, the only renew­able tech­nol­o­gy type to add more capac­i­ty than bio­mass was solar, with 52MW of com­bined capacity.

As of the end of April, the US was pro­duc­ing 15.88GW of renew­able ener­gy from bio­mass. This is approx­i­mate­ly 1.37% of total US capacity.

In addi­tion, a land­fill gas-to-ener­gy plant also opened in April, the report stat­ed. This is a 1.4MW plant owned by the Ban­nock Coun­ty Pub­lic Works Depart­ment, locat­ed at the Fort Hall Mine Land­fill in Idaho.