Agreement between Energy Northwest and Adage could bring biomass plants to Montana, Washington, Oregon and Idaho

Public utility consortium Energy Northwest http://www.energy-northwest.com/ and private energy company Adage http://www.adagebiopower.com/ have signed a preliminary agreement to develop biomass power plants in four states, including Montana.

The agreement signed Wednesday calls for developing plants that would convert wood waste from the timber industry into electricity and could be operating as early as 2012.

Each plant would generate about 50 megawatts of electricity, or enough to supply 40,000 households in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. The plan is to build at least one biomass power plant in each state, the companies said.

Full Story: http://helenair.com/articles/2009/02/20/state/107st_090220_biomass.txt

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Talk of bio-gen plant at CFAC

By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News

The Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. could be a good place for a bio-generation electric plant, Montana Sen. Ryan Zinke said last week.

Zinke noted that the aging aluminum smelter has several things in its favor: The electrical grid is already in place. The plant has water rights and it also has plenty of space.

Fuel, in the form of wood waste, is also available from local mills. Zinke said that talk of such a facility, which would burn to create electricity, is still pretty much just discussion, but it has drawn interest from the likes of Plum Creek, F.H. Stoltze, CFAC and the Bonneville Power Administration.

Full Story: http://www.hungryhorsenews.com/articles/2009/02/20/news/doc499c3753149ee733418150.txt