Nacogdoches Power, LLC's (Nacogdoches Power) construction work for 100 megawatt biomass facility in Sacul, Texas is expected to begin in September 2009. The company had signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with one of the bidders for the project. About 70% of the biomass supply will be from logging debris, while the remaining 30% from residual chips and sawdust from existing sawmills or municipal wood waste streams. The facility is expected to go online in 2012.
The facility will be located off state highway 204 on a 238-acre site.
Nacogdoches Power Fuel Procurement Manager Stephen McInnis said that he had not received permission from the company to name the EPC contractor selected. He said that the information should be available by late next week.
McInnis named a list of environmental permits, water and plant equipment contracts and interconnection studies that were in place, and he provided a few details on the 20-year purchase power agreement with Austin Energy.
This is what is going to be our ticket to the dance, McInnis said, referring to the agreement, and adding that it will allow the facility to receive revenue for a substantial length of time. It’s really what allowed us to lock in and secure this project.
Worley Parsons Limited had been selected to do preliminary design work, and a visual of that design was set up at the far end of the room, behind a basket of wood chips that demonstrated what the facility will use to create energy.
Truck traffic won’t sit on state Hwy. 204, McInnis said. Our easement is longer than a quarter mile, and even after that, they’ll come into the facility and circle the wood yard before they enter into one of our truck dumps.
McInnis estimated that about 130 trucks will come in and out of the facility each day, and that the facility will employ more than 200 jobs during construction. 40 permanent jobs will be created once the facilitywas online. About 100 additional jobs will be created once the facility was online from exterior work such as logging jobs. In context of emissions McInnis did note that the facility will have a 300-foot stack that will release emissions, but that they will be minimal.
Nacogdoches Power is a subsidiary of American Renewables, (a partnership between Baycorp Holdings, Ltd. Energy Management Company and Tyr Energy, Inc.).