A renewable energy plant is on the table again for Morgan County after three years of obstacles.
Joseph Yavorski, president of Creative Energy Systems, brought a new contract for a waste-to-energy plant to the Morgan County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday morning. The 42-page contract was tabled this week so the commissioners could review it more thoroughly, but Yavorski still got a chance to describe his company’s plan for converting trash to energy in the new facility. Although Commissioner Laura Teague emphasized that the contract is still in “the very preliminary stages,” all three board members expressed their excitement for the project.
CES first approached the county about the project in 2013, when it was met with approval by the Fort Morgan City Council and the board of commissioners. Their plan was to build a 15-megawatt waste-to-energy facility in Morgan County that would take trash from Morgan, Washington and Logan counties and convert it to renewable electricity through a process called pyrolysis. But the company was unable to find a way to transmit the power generated from the plant after the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, which provides electricity to Fort Morgan, turned them down.
Now CES is once again sending contracts to all three interested counties as the first step in their funding process. This comes after MEAN’s hiring of a new executive director in 2015 who is more open to the renewable energy plant.
“We’ve really been hoping this project would come back in front of us,” Teague said during the commissioners’ meeting. “What it means to us in the landfill is a quite considerable reduction in cost…We’re glad you’re back, and we’ll do everything we can to make this project happen.”
Yavorski explained that the plant would use non-recyclable waste with little “commodity value,” such as cardboard, plastic bottles and tires, to create a gas byproduct that can be turned into electricity. He said the process also would produce about 8,000 gallons of water per month, which could be used to supply the plant’s needs. And unlike other types of renewable energy facilities, a waste energy plant can produce power continuously, regardless of the weather.
“If you have a 20-megawatt wind farm or solar farm, you’re actually getting about 5 megawatts of actual power, and it comes in peak times,” Yavorski said. “So when we’re doing 15 megawatts, by my math it would be a 60-megawatt equivalent for a wind or solar farm.”
CES estimates the plant would create about 55 full-time jobs for the community, even though all the incoming trash will be sorted by machine. Yavorski said there will be no strong smells around the plant, since it will suck air in rather than blowing it out, but it’s required by law to be situated at least a half mile away from any residences.
The board will likely vote on the new CES contract at the next meeting. In the meantime, all three commissioners expressed support for Yavorski and his company’s plans.
“We’ll keep working with you, and hopefully we can get it finished this time,” Commissioner Jim Zwetzig said.
Article source: http://www.brushnewstribune.com/ci_29735791/renewable-energy-plant-possibility-again
