Massachusetts Releases Proposed Final Regulation on Biomass Energy

For the past few years, Massachusetts has been examining and debating whether and how renewable biomass electric power production can help it meet its energy needs and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in the years ahead. The result of this deliberation was released by the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) April 27. It sets a high bar for both biomass and biomass power producers.

The pending regulation pertains to the eligibility of biomass energy for credit under the Massachusetts renewable portfolio standard. For biomass producers, the regulation establishes the types of biomass that will be eligible. These will be limited to residues from forestry operations, biomass from non-forestry operations (e.g., land clearing), limited forest thinning, and biomass crops grown on certain eligible land. The regulation limits the amount of residue that may be removed to a maximum of 30 percent of the weight of the forest products removed, but this proportion may be reduced depending on the forest and soil types, slope of the terrain, and biodiversity conservation considerations. The regulation establishes a system for issuing and tracking biomass fuel certificates through the supply chain, and it provides for monitoring the impact of biomass removals over time.

For biopower producers, the regulation sets a high bar for the biomass energy conversion efficiency of the power plant. Most biopower plants in the U.S. today convert biomass to electric power at an average efficiency of about 25 percent. The regulation would require producers to achieve 50 percent efficiency in order to receive one half of a renewable energy credit. To receive a full credit, the power plant would have to operate at 60 percent efficiency. (In addition to selling electricity to the grid, the sale of renewable energy credits provides a key revenue stream for biopower producers – critical to making their plants economically viable.) Finally, the biopower producer must demonstrate that their overall system will reduce life cycle greenhouse gas emissions 50 percent below the life cycle emissions of a modern, state-of-the-art, fossil natural gas-fired combined cycle power system over twenty years.

The effect of this regulation would be to encourage the development of smaller, highly efficient biomass combined heat and power (CHP) systems which capture and use much more of the thermal energy of biomass combustion for space heating and cooling or industrial process applications. For additional EESI information and links on CHP and district energy, click here and here .

You can access the Massachusetts DORE documents here .

The DOER will accept written comments on this proposed final regulation before June 18th, 2012. Any interested party may submit written comments electronically in pdf format to doer.biomass [at] state.ma.us . Questions also may be directed to doer.biomass [at] state.ma.us .