Fitchburg Firm Bets Big On Biomass | Munksjo Paper plans 15 MW wood-fueled plant
PHOTO/livia gershon
Munksjo Paper in Fitchburg is planning a 15 megawatt biomass plant to help relieve energy costs.
Like many factories, Munksjo Paper Inc. in Fitchburg uses lots of energy, in the form of both electricity and oil. And, like many factories, lately it’s seen an enormous increase in what that energy costs.
Andrew Rice, vice president of finance, said the company’s monthly energy bills have doubled over the past two years, to as much as $1 million a month.
“It’s really become impossible to survive by fossil fuels,” Rice said.
A New Tack
So, Munksjo is trying something else. It’s now making plans with CCI Energy LLC of Plymouth to have a 15 megawatt wood-fueled biomass plant built at its River Street location. Rice said plans are still preliminary, and nothing has been signed yet, but the company anticipates reaching an agreement that would bring its energy costs back down to its 2004 or 2005 level.
The project is just one of two that CCI is planning in Fitchburg. The company is also working with Simonds International to build a similar plant at the new Fitchburg Airport Industrial Park, CCI President Jim Sweeney said.
Rice said it makes sense for the plants to be built on the campuses of existing manufacturing plants because the thermal energy they generate can’t easily be turned into energy. At the proposed plant, he said, Munksjo will use the heat to replace the oil it now uses in its manufacturing process.
Sweeney said the companies will also be able to buy electricity from the plants at a discounted rate. He said Munksjo will use about a third of the power that is generated, and Simonds will use about a tenth. CCI will sell the rest onto the grid.
Sweeney said he expects the Simonds plant to cost about $45 million, while the Munksjo project will be closer to $60 million because it requires additional plant equipment. He said he is now in talks with venture capital firms and other funding sources.
Sweeney said he expects to have the Simonds plant online by the end of 2009 and the Munksjo one the following year. The plants should make enough money to recoup the funds invested in them in about eight years, he said.
Despite his high hopes for the plants, which are his first venture into the wood-to-energy field, Sweeney said they are the only ones he will be building in Massachusetts. With wood power becoming more popular, he said, putting too many biomass plants in one area could mean running through the available wood supply too quickly and driving the price too high.
Tom Shannon, director of engineering at Munksjo, said the paper manufacturer’s Sweden-based parent company brought up that exact concern in preliminary discussions of the deal. In northern Europe, he said, biomass energy has become popular enough to drive up wood prices.
But Sweeney said the costs for the two Fitchburg plants shouldn’t be too hard to control. For now, there is local wood available. Later, he said, he hopes to set up a tree farm in upstate New York to help provide more fuel.
Meanwhile, Sweeney is in the process of merging CCI, which in the past has worked mainly on gas-fueled cogeneration plants, with Emergent Energy Group, a Natick company that focuses on wind power and other renewable energy.
Jared Rodriguez, director of product development and marketing for Emergent, said the company is excited to take on the projects.
“We really take pride in helping to get businesses and communities on their feet,” he said. “And that’s what Munksjo is going to do. They’ll be competitive again once they complete this project.”
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