Georgia’s Public Service Commission recently voted to approve the purchase of electricity from a Wayne County biomass project.
Touted as “green power” – burning wood for power generation has been shown to have a negative impact on the environment. Additionally, the plant will generate electricity at a much higher cost.
Science for Georgia was quoted in a news story about the negative impacts of a biomass plant on both consumer’s wallets (Georgia Power rates have increased about $45 dollars, per month, in the past year) and on the environment.
Read the full article here – Georgia Power will burn more biomass from regulator approval | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
More about the negative effects of biomass as fuel
In theory – carbon emitted via burning biomass is then reabsorbed by new growth. Alas, the process of growing new trees is long, and the offsets from new growth do not kick in for at least 50 to 100 years.
Additionally, the wood pellet production process is not clean, and facilities are often located in environmental justice communities.
- From Nature – How ‘green’ electricity from wood harms the planet — and people (nature.com)
- Enviornmental Research Letters – Does replacing coal with wood lower CO2 emissions? Dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy – IOPscience.