Burney-Hat Creek Bioenergy
A community-scale 3 MW biomass gasification to energy system utilizing forest sourced feedstock.
Fall River Resource Conservation District
Recipient
Mcarthur, CA
Recipient Location
1st
Senate District
1st
Assembly District
$4,785,778
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
In 2024, this Burney-Hat Creek Bioenergy project achieved substantial milestones toward completion and moving closer to planned commercial operation in early 2025. With construction and installation of major components – civil, structural, electrical works including power plant technologies such as organic rankine cycle (ORC) tower, heat exchangers, thermal oil heater tower, regenerator, evaporator, air condenser, and reaction chamber – mostly completed, the project team started mechanical, electrical, and cold commissioning. A few remaining works involve continuation of commissioning, testing of entire systems, and troubleshooting to identify problems and potential issues and conduct repairs where needed. Feedstock yard is now fully graded, a truck tipper has been placed, and the project has started receiving initial feedstock onsite. Furthermore, the project awaits the utility (PG&E) to complete its part, such as substation upgrades including Direct Transfer Trip (DTT) protections, and permission to interconnect the power plant. This project, which received approval of Renewables Portfolio Standard pre-certification from CEC, received $2M from CALFIRE to fund transport of woody biomass and forest restoration and is part of U.S. Department of Energy’s $30M grant for West Biofuel’s Community Scale Rural Bioenergy Facilities project.
The Issue
Forest biomass is a potentially valuable resource for power generation but has been difficult to deploy at scale given lack of cost competitiveness and other barriers. There remains a need to advance cost-effective, efficient, and low-emission biopower facilities that are suited to local communities and to develop modular biopower technologies that could be economically scaled up and transported or replicated at different forest locations.
Project Innovation
This project seeks to bring West Biofuels gasification technology, a technology funded by EPIC under an applied research and development program grant (EPC-14-024), to full commercialization. The West Biofuels gasification solution is designed to utilize forest derived biomass and is ready for scale-up demonstration and deployment. To advance its commercial readiness, this project is developing and demonstrating a community-scale forest biomass facility in the Burney-Hat Creek region that is designed to address the need for increased markets for forest biomass resources. The bioenergy facility will be consistent with the requirements of the BioMAT Category 3 and obtain a power purchase agreement at a financially viable price. The plant will consume about 22,000 bone dry tons (BDT) of forest sourced feedstock per year, generate 2.88 MW of renewable energy at full rated capacity, and have a capacity factor that is greater than or equal to 75 percent.
Project Benefits
The Burney-Hat Creek Bioenergy facility will be the first commercial deployment of an innovative gasification system that integrates a horizontally positioned rotary gasifier based off a torrefaction reactor, a thermal oxidizer and an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology in place of an internal combustion engine. The technology is expected to overcome important challenges with the use of forest-sourced wood, including environmental compliance and operating challenges that are hindering large scale bioenergy projects.
Affordability
California IOU’s have been mandated to procure 250 MW of biomass electricity through SB 1122. Burney-Hat Creek Bioenergy is part of a cost-effective set of options for the utilities to acquire this capacity through the SB 1122 BioMAT program. A set of factors -- including relatively low capital cost using essentially free feedstock while leveraging a local partnership of a technology manufacturer and the construction company -- will help deliver a LCOE f
Reliability
Distributed forest biomass projects provide important grid reliability in northeastern California, a remote region of the PG&E grid. Burney-Hat Creek Bioenergy will help provide greater reliability through: reduced power losses and the reduction in system harmonics through local distributed generation minimizing the heat generation from long-distance transmission; improved grid resilience to climate change by supporting sustainable forest management and
Safety
By developing the region’s biomass infrastructure, the project will promote fire-safe forest management, helping protect ratepayer property and grid infrastructure.
Key Project Members
Sharmie Stevenson
Todd Sloat
Subrecipients
The Regents of California, San Diego
Todd Sloat
Hat Creek Bioenergy, LLC
Match Partners
Hat Creek Bioenergy, LLC
