BCAP funding awarded to New York, North Carolina, Arkansas

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Luke Geiver
June 13, 2012

The USDA’s Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) is back in action. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that two new project areas will be developed and another existing BCAP project area will be expanded through the help of a $9.6 million funding round.

In New York, ReEnergy Holding LLC will enroll 3,500 acres in a fast growing shrub willow that will be used to help the biomass power developer generate over 100 MW. The biomass company already has three facilities that have committed to purchasing the shrub feedstock. According to the USDA, the establishment of the energy willows will create roughly 144 jobs over the course of 11 years. Part of the project will include support from the “Come Farm With Us,” campaign, a program that targets new and beginning farmers form the St. Regis Mohawk reservation located only 15 miles from one of the committed facilities.

Chemtex International, a division of Gruppo Mossi & Ghisolfi, an advanced biofuels, biobased chemical and renewable energy developer based out of Italy, has been awarded roughly $4 million from the USDA to develop 4,000 acres of miscanthus and switchgrass in North Carolina. The energy crop project areas will be spread throughout 11 counties, and the energy crops will be used in part for Project Alpha, a 20 MMgy cellulosic ethanol biorefinery that will also produce onsite biogas for power generation, set for startup in 2014 in Sampson County, N.C.

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