Bio-energy isn’t new to Michigan. More than 30% of the state’s renewable
energy comes from wood-fired power plants that have been providing high
paying jobs and environmentally friendly electricity since the 1980s:
slightly less than power from hydroelectric dams, but more than all other
sources of renewable power combined.
Michigan
Biomass is an advocacy group for small wood-fired power generators
operating under power purchase agreements effective prior to 2000. These projects generate
reliable and affordable renewable energy from locally generated waste wood. They
provide good pay for skilled workers and support more than a thousand
indirect jobs in the forest products industry that produces their fuel.
In the process they inject more than $68 million a year into local
economies, mostly in rural northern Michigan.
These
power projects make significant contributions to the environment, too.
Every megawatt of power
produced with cleaner, renewable biomass replaces coal power, which
produces greenhouse gases responsible for global warming, acid rain and other
emissions such as mercury. Plus, the waste wood we use for
fuel provides local forest products industries with additional revenues
and reduces consumption of landfill space. Even the wood ash byproducts has
beneficial use as fertilizer.
First developed with entrepreneurial spirit in the 1980s, these
projects will continue to provide economic and environmental benefits well
into Michigan’s energy future. That spirit still exists today as we
collaborate with state and local policymakers to ensure continued
viability of our projects, their related industries and the communities
they serve.
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