 |
|||
 |
|||
|
     |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||
|
St. Paul CogenerationIn the 1990s, Ever-Green Energy's management team saw the potential to efficiently produce clean electricity. |
|
 |
 |
|
In the 1990s, Ever-Green Energy's management team saw the potential to efficiently produce clean electricity. The team conceived a way to obtain a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement for the sale of electricity generated through a renewable fueled, combined heat and power (CHP) plant. This agreement, along with a partnership with Duke Energy Generation Services, contributed to the successful development of a new wood-fired CHP facility in downtown Saint Paul, which began commercial operation in 2003. The CHP plant is jointly owned by Ever-Green Energy and Duke Energy Generation Services under the name St. Paul Cogeneration. How it WorksCHP is a process that generates both electricity and heat at the same time. Steam from the turbine generator that creates electricity is used to heat water rather than being released into the atmosphere and lost. The biomass fuel used in the Saint Paul facility is clean wood waste generated in the Twin Cities metro area. This CHP process extracts more usable energy from the fuel than creating heat or electricity alone, so it is much more efficient. Using renewable energy, the CHP plant simultaneously produces 25 megawatts of electricity and up to 65 megawatts of thermal energy. The renewable electricity is supplied to Xcel Energy and the thermal energy is supplied to more than 31 million square feet of building space throughout downtown Saint Paul. The wood-fired CHP plant is the first facility of its kind to provide green energy to a state government complex. The Minnesota State Capitol Complex is the first in America that is heated and cooled by green energy. PerformanceCHP, a form of distributed generation, reduces the risk of power supply shortages, energy price spikes, power outages, power quality problems, national security concerns, dirty air and global climate change. As efficiency increases, pollution decreases, which is why CHP is considered by many to be one of the most cost-effective means of improving air quality. When combined with renewable energy, the results are even better. Large quantities of wood waste are generated in the Twin Cities metro area annually, resulting in storage and disposal problems. The CHP plant turns approximately 280,000 tons of this renewable resource into green energy annually, replacing about 60 percent of District Energy St. Paul's use of coal and oil and significantly reducing carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate emissions. The company's goal is to continually increase its use of renewable resources. |
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
 |
|