hm - June11 - cover.indd - National Hardwood Lumber Association

GREEN WAVE
NORTHWEST ENERGY PLANS $300M OREGON BIOMASS INVESTMENT
An energy developer is proposing a pair of $150 million biomass
plants it believes will generate a combined $1 billion in economic
impact for Oregon. Northwest Energy Systems Co., LLC hopes the
two 40-megawatt plants, to be located near Klamath Falls in southern
Oregon and Warm Springs in central Oregon, will be operating by the
end of 2013. Each plant would provide enough electricity to power
35,000 homes.
Once running the plants would mark the culmination of a year-long
effort by Northwest Energy Systems’ parent company, Jones Holding
Co., (which dates back to the 1930s when it owned several sawmill
operations across Washington) to develop a biomass facility in forestrich
Oregon.
JWTR LLC, a Klamath Falls company controlled by Jeld-Wen,
Inc., which has more than 600,000 acres of timberlands in southern
Oregon and northern California has agreed to supply fuel in the form
of thinning and other waste from managing their forest lands to the
Klamath Falls project over the next 20 years.
The fuel supply for the Warm Springs project is slightly less certain
with 40 percent of the fuel needed coming from the lands of the
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation and third-party
suppliers around the Portland metro area in the form of urban
demolition waste such as pallets and clean wood from
construction sites.
Northwest is in negotiations with both PacifiCorp and Portland
General Electric Co. on long-term agreements to buy the power
generated from the plants.
WWW.NHLA.COM JUNE 2011 HARDWOOD MATTERS 23