Refuse-derived fuel and biomass

Georgia Power pioneers ‘green bonds’ market

Atlanta-based Georgia Power says it has completed the issuance of $325 million worth of Green Bonds.

The company says offering the new Green Bonds “is the latest way [of] supporting renewable development in Georgia, including solar, wind and biomass” power applications.

“The issuance of these bonds will help us bring more renewable energy to the state while ensuring reliability and keeping our rates low for customers,” says Paul Bowers, chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Power.

The company says its renewable energy portfolio represents “a diverse, balanced generation mix [that] includes solar, wind and biomass.”

In Albany, Georgia, the utility is part of a Procter & Gamble (P&G) 50-megawatt biomass project that will help power one of P&G’s paper towel and tissue plants.

P&G describes the feedstock for the biomass plant as materials “that would otherwise have been left to decay, burned or potentially sent to landfill.”

Georgia Power also has proposed an additional 525 megawatts of renewable generation for its customers.

EPA finalizes NHSM Rule to include wood and paper recycling residuals

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is adding three materials to the list of categorical nonwaste fuels under the 40 CFR Part 241 Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials (NHSM). The three materials are:

• construction and demolition (C&D) wood processed from C&D debris according to best management practices;
• paper recycling residuals generated from the recycling of recovered paper, paperboard and corrugated containers and combusted by paper recycling mills whose boilers are designed to burn solid fuel; and
• creosote-treated railroad ties that are processed and then combusted in units designed to burn both biomass and fuel oil as part of normal operations and not solely as part of startup or shutdown operations, and units at major source pulp and paper mills or power producers subject to 40 CFR 63 Subpart DDDDD that had been designed to burn biomass and fuel oil but are modified (e.g., oil delivery mechanisms are removed) in order to use natural gas, instead of fuel oil as part of normal operations and not soley as part of start-up or shut down operations.

The final rule, established Jan. 19, 2016, can be viewed on the Federal Register at http://1.usa.gov/1qnWVLW.

This final rule also includes technical corrections to the Feb. 7, 2013, final rule.

EPA published the proposal seeking comment on the addition of these three materials to the list of categorical nonwaste fuels along with some technical corrections on April 14, 2014.

This proposed and now final rule builds upon the base NHSM regulatory program established on March 21, 2011.