Firm to invest $80M in plant

Catalyst Renewables plans to convert power facility to wood-burning.

Catalyst Renewables Corp., a Texas company that recently opened an office in Syracuse, will announce plans for the $80 million project at a news conference today.

Converting the power plant, which formerly burned natural gas, to a wood-burning facility will require extensive renovations, said Derek Benson, managing director of Catalyst Renewables. The earliest the plant would operate is the first quarter of 2011.

The project would require Catalyst to raise significant capital, obtain regulatory permits and secure renewable energy contracts before going forward.

"There are lots of things that have to go right for it to be a real project," said Eric Spomer, president of Catalyst Renewables.

Both men declined to identify the site of the project before today's announcement, except to say it was in Geddes. They said Catalyst will partner on the project with the power plant's current owner.

Several sources, including Geddes supervisor Robert Czaplicki, who was briefed on the plan, identified the project as the Onondaga Cogeneration facility on Bridge Street in Geddes, just north of Solvay.

Onondaga Cogeneration ceased operations April 30. Its owner, Atlantic Power Corp., of Canada, is selling off some of the plant's equipment.

If the facility were converted to a biomass plant, it would be the third such plant in New York state, Benson said.

Catalyst's plan is to produce 40 megawatts of electricity at the facility, enough for roughly 40,000 average homes, Benson said. That would require about 400,000 tons of wood per year, most of which would be forest residue culled from within an 80-mile radius of the plant. The facility also could burn urban tree trimmings and agricultural biomass such as willows.

Separate from the power plant project, Catalyst has formed a company called TreeSource Solutions LLC, which will be based at its Syracuse office at 120 Walton St. in Armory Square.

TreeSource Solutions will secure wood supplies for power plants or for industries that are converting to biomass fuel.

Although burning wood creates "slightly higher" amounts of particulate emissions than natural gas, the Geddes project would have advanced controls to prevent pollution, Benson said. The plant would emit less nitrogen oxide and less sulfur dioxide than a fossil fuel plant, he said.

A wood-burning plant also is considered "carbon neutral," because its emissions are no greater than the carbon dioxide removed from the air by the trees it uses.

The plant would require an air permit from the state Department of Environmental Conservation before it could operate.

Benson said Central New York forests have a glut of low-value timber.

Catalyst expects to spend about $13 million a year for wood for the Geddes plant.

Based in Dallas, Catalyst Renewables focuses its efforts on developing biomass energy in New York state and geothermal energy in California. The company operates Lyonsdale Biomass, a 20-megawatt wood-burning power plant in Lewis County.

Czaplicki, the Geddes supervisor, said he was excited about the plan.

"On its face, it seems to be a good idea and I hope everything works out," he said.

Benson said Catalyst is in discussions with "a couple" of local utilities about selling them power under a long-term contract. No deal has been signed yet, he said.