A company is seeking state permission to construct a 35-megawatt, wood biomass-fired electrical power generator in the John Matthews Industrial Park.

Few details are available on the proposed project. But Orangeburg County Biomass, LLC has filed a permit request providing some information with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Bureau of Air Quality.

Orangeburg County Development Commission Executive Director Gregg Robinson says he can not comment on any specific proposed project.

“We are working with a number of green energy projects,” Robinson said. “Solar, wind and biomass are all areas under consideration.

“Creating capital investment and jobs is our mission and alternative energy is one more option. Our industrial vision is to make Orangeburg County as green as possible.”

The notice filed with DHEC says, “The facility will provide direct power to local purchasers, as well as provide surplus power to the local power supplier via direct grid connection.”

Tri-County Electric Cooperative spokesman Chad Lowder says the utility has been talking with the group for about a year about purchasing power, although nothing is settled yet.

“Central Electric Cooperative has joined us in these discussions,” Lowder said. “The actual purchasing of power would be handled and distributed by them to all the cooperatives on the power grid.

“In this climate of energy production, this is just one of the renewable power options that cooperatives are looking at as a source of power.”

A recent S.C. Forestry Commission report on wood biomass notes that 29 states and the District of Columbia now require utility companies to get at least a portion of their power from renewable energy sources. Although South Carolina has no such requirements, North Carolina now says its utilities must get at least 12.5 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2021.

S.C. Energy Office policy analyst Amy Lawrence, who is also a coordinator with the state Biomass Council, says there are about 34 wood biomass operations in the state.

“Once or twice a year we take an informal survey of these companies to verify they are still operating,” Lawrence said. “The bulk of these operations, which are sawmills and others involved in the lumber industry, are using wood biomass as an internal power source.”

James Council, who owns Council Lumber Company and Council Energy Company in Orangeburg, says the business produces energy from wood biomass. It was used to meet the company’s own needs at first, but now some is sold to other customers.

Lawrence says South Carolina ranks seventh in the country in per-capita consumption of biomass for energy, according to U.S. Department of Energy 2007 data.

In 2007, South Carolina enacted the Energy Freedom and Rural Development Act, which provides production incentives for certain biomass-energy facilities. Similar federal tax credits also exist.

Dan Page of Spartanburg said last week he represents Orangeburg County Biomass but that he wants to consult with other company officials before commenting for a story.

Documents related to Orangeburg County Biomass LLC’s permit request may be viewed at DHEC’s Web site at http://www.scdhec.gov/environment/baq/publicnotice.asp.

T&D Staff Writer Phil Sarata can be reached by e-mail at psarata@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5540.

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