6/29/09 La Pine
 
By Doug Johnson
 
In 18 months 10 acres on the corner of Reed Road and Mitts Way in La Pine, will be transformed into a biomass power plant, able to produce almost twenty megawatts of electricity. The plans were approved Monday morning, by the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners.
 
"Going to add to the economy, going to create jobs, they're going to produce steam, that will maybe be able to use in other applications, other businesses," says Susan Ross, Director of Property and Facilities for Deschutes County.
 
Biogreen Sustainable Energy out of St. Helens Oregon will build and operate the plant. It expects the plant to bring twenty direct jobs, with as many as ninety indirect jobs such as trucking and forestry to follow. In addition, the company says about one hundred construction jobs should be created in the next four months.
 
"Yeah I'm hoping it can build up around here, because I know this building's been here a few years and no one else has built around it," says Justin Doerfler with Toney Construction Company, who's shop is close to the plant's site.
 
The plant will use biomass fuels, such as slash piles, forest undergrowth and wood construction materials, to boil water creating steam, which is used to turn a turbine and create electricity. At this time most fuels are being removed from private timber lands, but soon Biogreen says it will partner with wood recyclers to bid on US Forest Service thinning programs. The county says the process is clean, with pollution almost non-existent. There are four other similar plants in Oregon, including on by Roseburg and another by Medford. Other businesses, such as a wood pellet plant, could partner with the biomass plant in the future to share the steam.
 
"There isn't a whole lot going on anywhere obviously, you know that, and especially in la pine a small town like this, any work would help definitely," Doerfler says.