County
County To Sell Passed Gas
March 15, 2006 
We never considered the production of methane gas to be “exciting”–unless it was produced in a fraternity house or Army barracks by a drunk with a lit match who raised his leg and said, “watch this!”
In a press release detailing the highlights of the 2nd Annual “State of The County” breakfast fund raiser, Commish Rick Yzaguirre revealed what the county called an “exciting public/private partnership” (P3) with G2 Energy LLC: capturing methane gas at the County Dump to power generators they claim will produce $324,000 worth of electricity a year for the county coffers.
Decaying garbage creates the gas at the landfill, just as it does in your tummy. This is known in some circles as Fresh Air Recycle Technology–FART.
We put the power generating scenario to a GUARDIAN expert who concluded the idea is good, has some nice greenie aspects, but appears to be far short of what the commish claims it will produce. Here is our guy’s serious take using the county and Idaho Power’s numbers:
“Idaho power will pay 1.719cents per kWh for cogeneration power. Annual gross revenue of a 3.2 Mw plant is $481,870. In this scenario $324,000 amounts to 67% of the TOTAL revenue! The next numbers that should be looked at are the gas generation estimates and the efficiency of the capture and use system. Estimates appear overly optimistic and ADA county probably will not get this kind of return. However it will reduce passed gas (methane) emissions if done right.”
UPDATED INFORMATION
Our expert found some additional information to add to the funding formula, Here is part the actual agreement details between G2 and Idaho Power:
During times of peak demand – July, August, November and December – Idaho Power will pay about 6.2 cents per kWh and during low demand months about 3.8 cents. At full capacity the facility would produce $1,286,400 per annum. The $324,000 represents about 25% percentage of revenue.
Even Public Utilities staffers expressed doubts about the longevity and capacity of the plant and equipment in the document approved by the PUC.
Per Idaho Power, the average residential customer uses 1,200 kWh per month (720 hours per 30 day month). The 3,200 kWh of power generated would supply 1,920 average homes (only 80% of the G2 estimate of 2,400 homes.)
If the citizen’s garbage will generate $324,000 worth of gas, just think what a county commish or city council meeting would be worth!
To insure more advertising-free Boise Guardian news, please consider financial support.
Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Mar 16, 2006, 7:54 am
Guardian
The county is already in the power business. You might try finding out how much money they make from Barber Dam ( not Diversion). The county owns the dam and gets a % of revenues from the generation of power. Strange our taxes never go down with all of these money making deals.
Mar 16, 2006, 4:01 pm
In response to Porcupine’s question. The county gets $25,000 per year royalty from Barber Dam while the revenue generated by the dam ranges from $240,000 in a low water year to as much as $900,000 in a high water year.
ED NOTE–Bloggers have answers to most questions! This source seems like a good one.
Mar 17, 2006, 8:46 am
Interesting numbers. “Growth is Good, Growth is Great! Growth please bless this inflated tax (utility) bill I am about to pay.”
Methane farming in Boise. How wonderful. Since they seem bent to destroy the valley to build houses instead of growing food F.A.R.T. somehow seems to fit right in with Micron and H.P.
I think I remember when Idaho Power sold and exported a large percentage of the power generated here. I don’t think they bought much high priced out of state power in those days and our power bills truly were reasonable.
Guardian, I appreciate your humor. At some point with all these antics about all you can do is to shake your head and snicker.