Sludge Watch ==> Banning CA - 15 megawatt sludge renewable energy plant

[Maureen Reilly]

Banning power plant would be fueled with waste products



10:26 AM PST on Tuesday, January 15, 2008

By ERIN WALDNER
The Press-Enterprise

BANNING - A proposed power plant would turn treated sewage sludge and green 
waste into renewable energy, and generate tax revenue, city officials say.

The renewable plant would be built about 20 acres of city-owned land in 
southeast Banning and generate 15 megawatts of electricity.

About nine months ago, the company proposing the plant, Liberty Energy Inc. 
in Bakersfield, signed two letters of intent with the city. One states that 
if the plant is built, the city will buy the energy it generates. The other 
says the city will lease to Liberty Energy the land where the plant would be 
built.


An environmental study should be ready for review this spring, said Michael 
Bracken, a managing partner in Development Management Group in Palm Desert 
and project investor in Liberty Energy. Bracken is a former Banning city 
councilman.

Liberty Energy hopes to have permits by this time next year. The $180 
million plant should be operational by 2011, Bracken said. The Banning City 
Council and South Coast Air Quality Management District will have to approve 
it.

The plant would generate $2 million a year in tax revenue, Bracken said.

The plant would give Banning a renewable energy source, said Jim Earhart, 
the city's electric utility director. Under state law, at least 20 percent 
of the energy acquired by electric corporations must come from renewable 
resources, like the wind and sun, by 2010.

Currently, 6 to 7 percent of the energy the city purchases is green, Earhart 
said.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/sbcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_R_bplant15.32a337a.html

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Investor informs Banning residents, officials about proposed power plant



10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, January 16, 2008

By ERIN WALDNER
The Press-Enterprise

BANNING - Michael Bracken came to City Hall on Wednesday to discuss a topic 
that, admittedly, isn't very pleasant.

"No one wants to talk about sewage sludge," Bracken said.

But if the power plant he's promoting is going to get off the ground, 
there's no getting around it.

Story continues below

Liberty Energy Inc., a Bakersfield-based company in which Bracken is a 
project investor, wants to build a 15-megawatt renewable energy power plant 
in Banning that would run off treated sewage sludge, called biosolids, and 
green waste, such as lawn clippings, called biomass.

The facility would be in the southeast corner of town, south of the 
municipal airport. The city of Banning has signed a letter of intent with 
Liberty Energy to purchase the power the plant would generate for local 
residents and businesses.

An environmental study on the project is being prepared and should be ready 
for public review this spring.

Should it get all of the permits it needs, Liberty hopes to have the plant 
operational by 2011.

Bracken held two public information meetings on the proposed power plant 
Wednesday. He detailed the project and took questions from the audiences.

At the first meeting, retired civil engineer Fred Sakurai asked about how 
the delivery trucks -- the trucks carrying the sewage sludge and green waste 
to the plant -- would affect the residential roads. Bracken said Liberty 
Energy doesn't plan to have trucks enter any residential areas. He said that 
aside from a few houses off Interstate 10, the route to the plant is 
industrial.

According to Bracken, 400 trucks a day are already carrying the plant's fuel 
source from Orange County and Los Angeles to Arizona by way of Interstate 
10.

Liberty Energy, he said, is talking about diverting 75 to 100 trucks a day 
-- one every six to 10 minutes -- from the highway to deliver biosolids and 
biomass to the power plant.

Banning Councilwoman Barbara Hanna asked how the plant will dispose of ash, 
a byproduct of this energy-making process. Bracken said it will be vacuumed 
into sealed containers and trucked out at a rate of 12 to 15 trucks a day.

Most of the ash, he said, will be destined for aggregate and cement plants.

In his presentations, Bracken highlighted what he said are the benefits of 
the power plant to Banning.

It will generate tax revenue and construction jobs and help the city meet 
renewable energy requirements, he said.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_B_breact17.33d728b.html