Snowflake White Mountain Power  
   
 

In 2006, NZ Legacy, LLC begin construction on a 24MW electrical generation biomass plant, Snowflake White Mountain Power (SWMP) near Snowflake, Arizona.

In November 2007, NZ Legacy, LLC merged it's biomass operations: Renegy, LLC with Catalytica Energy Systems Inc., to form a new company: Renegy Holdings, Inc. ("Renegy"). Renegy owns and operates SWMP.

The $53 million plant started commercial operation June 2008, to meet the power obligations under its 20-year Power Purchase Agreements with Arizona Public Services (APS) and Salt River Project (SRP).

  
     
 

The plant was built at the Catalyst Paper Mill (formerly Abitibi) twelve miles west of Snowflake, AZ.

  
 

 

  
  Plant Facts and History:  
 

 

  
 

On September 27, 2004, SRP notified SWMP that SWMP’s bid was selected as the result of their RFP to purchase 10MW of biomass produced power. Negotiations with SRP were quickly completed and a 20-year PPA was signed. SRP takes 10MW of the power for the first 15 years of the contract and the full 20MW of production for the following five years.

  
     
 

APS agreed to take another 10 MW of biomass generated power from the plant and signed a PPA to purchase this power for 15 years.

  
     
 

Both PPAs have price escalators in place for the life of the agreements.

  
     
 

The plant was built with a new Babcock and Wilcox bubbling fluidized bed boiler built specifically to meet the fuel makeup at SWMP. The plant’s economics were improved by taking advantage of an idled paper facility in Houston, Texas from where much of the SWMP plant’s other components (conveyors, screw presses, etc.) were acquired.

  
 

 

  
 

Fuel for the biomass plant comes from two main sources. First, is woody waste material from the surrounding National Forests. Renegy harvests and provides fuel from green forest thinning activities, forest rehabilitation work on the burn area of the Rodeo-Chediski fire area and waste material from the region’s existing saw mills. Secondly, the Catalyst paper mill, produces 250 bone dry tons of waste recycled paper fibers each day which are currently sent to an adjoining landfill. These paper fibers are now sent through an additional pressing facility to lower their moisture content and become additional fuel for the SWMP boiler.

  
 

 

  
 

Benefits of locating the biomass facility at Catalyst paper mill include:

  
 

 

  
 
•
 69KV dedicated line to APS’s Cholla Power Plant, the preferred delivery point for SRP’s power. Without further upgrades the line can take at least 25 MW of additional electricity to Cholla. The transmission agreement is already in place.
 
•
 APS has confirmed that the White Mountain communities of Showlow, Pinetop, Lakeside, Heber, Snowflake, etc. all use this feeder line and it is overloaded from Cholla to the White Mountain area. By placing a generating source at Catalyst, this bottleneck is relieved for about 5 years and APS is greatly benefited. It is conceivable that much more power could be generated and delivered from this site due to the growth in the local market.
 
•
 Enough paper sludge to power a 6 MW power plant annually with no other feedstock on a go forward basis without touching the 720,000 tons in a landfill today. The landfill also serves as a place to dump ash from the biomass boilers.
 
•
 Natural Gas is already available to the site for startup and if needed for drying feedstock, etc.
 
•
 State-of-the-art control room and monitoring equipment allows Renegy to more closely monitor power quality.
 
•
 Up-time guarantee exceeds the SRP and APS PPA levels of compliance of 90%.
 
•
 Land is available with plenty of space to work including a fire protected chip yard that was previously used for 35 years as the location to store chips.
 
•
 ADEQ certified engineers test air quality for compliance 24X7.
 
•
 Boiler feed water supply is available with treatment for the highest pressure boilers.
 
•
 Catalyst has company-owned rail service (Apache Railway), trucking contracts with Swift Trucking, truck traffic control, scaling facilities and personnel, security, maintenance (certified power plant mechanics, welders, etc.), spare parts warehousing, fire suppression teams, human resources, accounting, office space, management, abandoned chip yard and associated assets, etc.
 
For more information about Renegy Holdings, Inc.
 
 
 
   
 
Snowflake White Mountain Power Biomass Plant Makes Headlines
  
 
 
Energy Services Bulletin Discusses
SWMP Project (Read More)
  
 
 
 
Arizona Department of Commerce Authorized $39.25 Million in Bonds (Read More)
  
 
 
 

Navajo County and City of Show Low
Authorize SWMP Bonds (Read More)

  
 
 
 

SRP Buys Biomass Power
from SWMP (Read More)

  
 
 
 
SWMP Closes Financing (Read More)
  
 
 
 
Early Support for USDA and
Environmental Groups (Read More)
 
     
 
Important Documents
 
 
 
 
Babcock nd Wilcox Boiler Information
and Schematic (See Full Document)
 
 
 
 
Biomass Industry News
  
     
 

Experts Ponder Future of Biomass:
Power Magazine - May 2007

  
  5/07 - Experts discuss important trends and success factors for the biomass industry.
(See full article) 		 
 
 
 

Four Major States Order
 Increased Purchase of Bio Fuels

  
  11/05 - Governors in New York, Texas, Wisconsin and Minnesota order state agencies to save energy and increase their purchase and use of bio-fuels. (See full article)  
 
 
 
$200 Million In Loan Guarantees Set
Aside For Biomass Energy Projects
  
 

7/05 - The USDA's Rural Development Renewable Energy Program decides to set aside $200 million in loan guarantees for biomass energy projects. (See full article)

  
     
 
Biomass Educational Resources
  
   
What is biomass and how is it used as an energy resource? To find out more, Click Here