The new Gainesville Renewable Energy Center, a wood-burning biomass power plant, began producing power last week.
The plant was connecting to the grid and producing a small amount of power as a test of the plant’s capacities, said Albert Morales, chief financial officer of GREC.
“It’s just one step in many,” he said. “We expect it to be fully operational in the fall.”
Morales said that the new plant has a 100-MW capacity and will use fuel from the surrounding forests, wood processing residue and municipal wood waste. The plant will provide base-load power for the city because it runs constantly.
Although the plant is currently offline, Morales said they would soon be running performance tests that will bring the plant near or to its full capacity.
However, not everyone is happy about the new renewable energy plant in Gainesville.
Residents like Russ Pisano have emailed the city commissioners in hopes of gathering opposition against the plant.
“Myself and other neighbors have been shut out of our bedrooms at night due to the extreme noise coming from the plant,” the 72-year-old wrote. “It is similar to being on an aircraft carrier during operations.”
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 8/28/2013 under the headline "Gainesville biomass plant begins producing power"
