Florida Study - Bipartisan Policy Center

Direct Fire With Dedicated Energy CropsThe potential for dedicated energy crop production will likely be based on the amount ofcropland/pastureland that can be converted. In addition, the price of that feedstock will likely berelated to quantities demanded. As estimates for these data, a solution from POLYSYS from aprior study is used (English et al., 2006). From this analysis, there are 0.5 million tons ofdedicated energy crop estimated to be available in 2015, 2.3 million in 2020, and 3.7 million in2025. Acreage yields used in the analysis are 3.6, 6.2, and 7.0 tons per acre, respectively, overthe same period. The price per ton for dedicated energy crops in Florida ranged from $65 to $75per ton. The price $70 per ton was used for all three periods in this analysis. With 3.7 milliontons of dedicated energy crop in 2025, about 6,975 million kWh of electricity could be producedfrom dedicated energy crops.Metropolitan Solid WasteAnother potential source of biopower is gasification using municipal solid waste (MSW).In order to determine the electricity generation potential of MSW, the amount of MSWgenerated needs to be determined. The amount of MSW generated will be determined by thefeasibility of collection and conversion, the population level, and the government focus onreducing MSW into landfills.Florida generated 35.02 billion tons of municipal solid waste in 2006 or 1.912 pounds percapita. Of that, 2.1 billion tons were already used to create energy, 22.75 billion tons arelandfilled (1.242 billion tons), and the remainder already recycled (Florida Department ofEnvironmental Protection, 2007). Furthermore, the Energy, Climate Change, and EconomicSecurity Act of 2008 (House Bill 7135) signed into law by Governor Crist established a newstatewide recycling goal of 75% to be achieved by the year 2020 (Florida Department ofEnvironmental Protection, 2009).Therefore, Florida has a goal of reducing landfilled MSW from where it is today to 25% or8.75 times billion tons by 2020 not adjusting for increased population growth. Assuming thisreduction moves into the refuse derived fuel (RDF) stream, 13.99 billion tons would be convertedto RDF. A plant creating RDF will likely convert 75 to 85% of a ton of MSW into refuse derivedfuel (RDF) and the remainder would go into recycling. The RDF typically has an ash content of10-17% and a BTU range of 4,800 to 6,400 BTU/pound of RDF. Assuming a BTU content of5,900 BTU/pound, RDF typicallyproduces 1 kWh for every 2.6pounds of RDF (SRI International,1992). Taking projected countypopulation and aggregating it toBEA regions and the county MSWand aggregating to BEA region,pounds of MSW per capita by BEAwas determined. Using thesedata, the amount of MSWgenerated through 2025 wasestimated. Using the stateaverage proportion of MSW islandfilled, maximum landfill MSWwas determined. The total MSWFederal Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard Impacts on Florida ___ 15