Wind, wave, wood (Humboldt Co CA)

[jpak]

http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_3554427

EUREKA -- One possible path toward Humboldt County's energy independence was penciled out Monday night -- a blend of wind, wave and wood-burning technologies being proposed by the company that owns the Fairhaven power plant.

DG Energy Solutions CEO Steve Mueller told a well-attended meeting at the Wharfinger Building that the county could be a leader in renewable electricity generation by eventually producing most or all of its own energy.

Using about 10 wind turbines on the Samoa Peninsula and a school of wave-power generators off the beach could produce 40 megawatts of power on top of the 18 mw the Fairhaven plant is expected to produce after a rehabilitation in progress, Mueller said. DG is also trying to fire up the 10 mw wood-burning Ultrapower 3 plant in blue Lake. The county uses about 158 mw during peak times.

But he said the support of the community would be paramount.

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[XemaSab]

1. The likelihood that there will be wind turbines on the Samoa Peninsula

is 0%.

There are snowy plover nests out there, and birds fly up and down there all the time. The birders will FREAK OUT and this will be in court for the next brazilian years.

[bemildred]

2. Somebody is trying to rehabilitate the Fairhaven plant?

Ah, I see, cogenerantion, I suppose just using the generators, not the nuclear bits.

[XemaSab]

3. Almost seems like it would be easier to build a new plant altogether

instead of trying to convert an old nuke on a fault line.

[bemildred]

4. I think I made a mistake there.

Fairhaven is out on the peninsula, where the pulp mills are. The mothballed Humboldt nuke is down in Field's Landing. It was shut down because of radioactive strontium it was littering the neighborhood with IIRC. The Fairhaven plant would most likely be burning slash from sawmills or pulp mill sludge for power. The decline of the sawmill economy may have led to it becoming uneconomic or something. Cutting all the trees as fast as possible was just as stupid as we told them it would be.