Ameresco, a provider of energy efficiency, infrastructure upgrades, and renewable energy solutions for facilities across North America, announced that the new biomass cogeneration facility at the Savannah River Site (SRS) has successfully started operation.
The company celebrated the operational startup along with Thomas D’Agostino, Under Secretary of Energy; Joe Wilson, U.S. Representative; and senior executives from the Department of Energy (DOE). A $795 million investment has been made to set up the SRS facility and it is the nation’s largest renewable Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC).
In 2009, Ameresco signed a 20-year ESPC with DOE to finance, design, build, operate, and maintain the new biomass cogeneration facility. The facility will use bio-derived fuels and clean biomass, comprising of wood chips and forest deposits, as the primary fuel source. It has a capacity to turn 385,000 tons of residues into 20 MW of renewable energy per year. The facility has substituted an inefficient oil-fired boilers and coal powerhouse, and is expected to produce $944 million cost savings associated with energy, operation and maintenance.
By replacing the D Area Powerhouse, changing to biomass fuel from coal, and enhancing the operation efficiency by installing new equipment, the facility offers considerable energy savings. In addition to energy savings, the SRS facility offers several environmental benefits, including prevention of 100,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually. The biomass cogeneration facility also expands strategic initiatives of Enterprise.SRS (E.SRS). It will help to achieve renewable energy goals by utilizing SRS’s expertise, skills and assets.
Source: http://www.ameresco.com/