Lumber Mill Cogeneration

Vital Statistics

Offsets: 28,000 metric tons carbon dioxide
Equivalent to taking 5,578 cars off the road for a year
Project Type: Cogeneration
Project Lifetime: 15 years
Starting Date: 2005
Location: Oregon
Project Partners: The Collins Companies

Project Description

The Climate Trust has contracted with The Collins Companies to buy offsets from a cogeneration facility that will be installed at a lumber mill in Lakeview, Oregon. The cogeneration system will simultaneously produce heat energy and electrical power from grid electricity.

The factory will switch from a high-pressure to a low-pressure drying kiln, and install a high efficiency 638 kW backpressure steam turbine to generate electricity from previously wasted steam. The co-generated electricity will displace purchased power, and the corresponding carbon dioxide emissions, from the grid. The Climate Trust will provide its funding once the cogeneration facility has achieved commercial operation. Collins guarantees that the project will provide a pre-determined amount of offsets over a 15-year life.

How the project reduces CO₂

This project combines an increase in efficiency for an existing kiln with the redirection of the resulting energy surplus into power generation for the facility. Since no new fuel is burnt to generate the electricity, the net carbon dioxide emission reductions from the project is the difference between the zero carbon emissions of on-site generation and the carbon intensity of grid-based electricity over the fifteen-year term of the contract.

Non-GHG Benefits

• The Collins Companies benefits financially via savings in operating costs
• Other harmful emissions from electricity generation will be reduced

Additionality Criteria: Why We’re Involved

With The Climate Trust’s funding, Collins Pine was able to surpass the capital costs involved because of financial limitations, and there are no other existing energy programs in Oregon that provide sufficient incentives for the Collins Companies to launch this project.

Partners

• The Collins Companies