Biomass
Biomass includes a variety of fuels, including pulp and paper, woody residues (forest, logging, and mill residues), landfill gas, municipal solid waste, animal waste, and wastewater treatment plant digester gas.
There are about 750 megawatts of installed biomass nameplate capacity in the Pacific Northwest. The majority of the region’s biomass capacity burns fuel from spent pulping liquor and woody residues. In recent years, there have been several small (on average three megawatts or less) animal waste and landfill gas plants developed on existing dairy farms and landfill operations. With the economic recession in the late 2000’s, several of the region’s paper and textile plants have shut down, greatly reducing the supply of pulping liquor for pulp and paper biomass plants.
Biomass in the PNW: 750 Megawatts Installed Nameplate Capacity
