7-17 FB Failed Biomass

 Idaho Power Company and the developer of a biomass power project that was to have been built near Emmett are proposing a settlement regarding the project’s failure to meet scheduled operation dates.  Under the proposed settlement, Montana-based Yellowstone Power would pay Idaho Power $200,000 in non-performance damages in exchange for Idaho Power’s agreement to not draw on a current $450,000 Letter of Credit against the project.  If Yellowstone fails to make the payment, then it agrees to allow Idaho Power to draw on the Letter of Credit.  Yellowstone Power developer Richard Vinson and Idaho Power reached a sales agreement in May 2004 under which Idaho Power would buy the energy from a 17.5-megawatt power generation project at the site of the former Boise Cascade Plant near Emmett. Here is Idaho Public Utilities Commission spokesperson, Gene Fadness:  “The project was a biomass-fueled combined heat and power plant to be co-located with the sawmill. Energy would be generated from the steam created by the controlled burning of the woody biomass fuel. This is an old technology that has certainly been refined over the years and lots of lumberyard’s have them.” There was no reason given for the failure of the lumberyard to produce the energy they expected to be able to generate.