Comment Log Display

California Forestry Association's comments are focused on the
impact of the 2020 and 2021 wildfires in CA and the opportunity for
restoration by providing power purchase agreements for idle biomass
powerplants(DG Fairhaven, Blue Lake, Loyalton, Mt. Lassen Power,
Oroville, Buena Vista, Madera, Dinuba, Delano and Mendota).  These
plants can produce about 200 MW when the State needs the power
(hydroelectric shutdown due to lake levels too low to run the
generators).

The 2020/2021 wildfires in CA caused high severity burn on about 1
million acres.  If these acres were restored, they would generate
about 5 million bone dry tons of forest biomass.  As the Forest
Service and State move toward 1 million acres/year of fuels
reduction, millions of Bone Dry Tons of additional forest biomass
will be produced.  200 MW of additional power could consume about
1.6 million bone dry tons of forest biomass per year. The CPUC was
recently seeking new opportunities for additional MWs that can be
developed new or at existing facilities by next year.  Idle Biomass
power plants can be part of the solution.  

Forest biomass continues to be an eligible renewable resource that
helps balance the grid.  Consuming biomass at a powerplant and
generating electricity is a reasonable option compared to leaving
the forest biomass in the forest to decay and release methane along
with the carbon dioxide.

Other than 3 BioRam biomass powerplants, none of the other biomass
power plants have power purchase agreements at a high enough rate
to cut, skid, pile, chip, load and haul the forest biomass to a
powerplant economically.

An infusion of funding would be needed along with reasonable power
purchase agreements to incentivize utilization of forest biomass.