For months I’ve been asking who at least knows where all the biomass plants in Georgia are proposed to be. Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) doesn’t know. National Geographic knows some, but not all. The State of Georgia maybe knows, but isn’t telling where they all are.

Who does know?

Energy Justice Network!

We are mapping all of the existing, proposed, closed and defeated dirty energy and waste facilities in the United States. We are building a network of community groups to fight the facilities and the corporations behind them.

The detail map shown includes the Wiregrass Power LLC proposed plant (the orange oval I just south of Valdosta), two plants in Hamilton County, Florida (Adage Hamilton and American Renewables – Hamilton), one in Waycross (Biomass Georgia), and one near Tallahassee (FERCO biomass incinerator). Zooming in on Tallahassee shows another orange I, for BRI Energy Ethanol. Both the Tallahassee plants are shown right in Tallahassee, not in Gretna, where another was proposed.

The Waycross plant is the pellet plant:

Governor Sonny Perdue joined other officials Wednesday to get construction rolling on a wood pellet manufacturing plant in Waycross. The facility is a joint venture of a German and Swedish company. Pellets made in Georgia will be exported to Europe.

Exporting raw materials to burn in another country; you know, like third world countries do.

According to Lisa Gibson in Biomass Magazine, Georgia Biomass will ship pellets to Europe:

Once operational in early 2011, Georgia Biomass in Waycross, Ga., will have the capacity to produce 750,000 tons of wood pellets per year from local timber sources.

How many acres of trees will it take to produce those pellets? And where will all the trees for Waycross, the two plants in Hamilton Co., FL, the one or two in Tallahassee, Plant Mitchell in Albany, and the existing Langdale lumber operation in Valdosta and the PCA plant in Clyattville; where will the wood come from for all these plants?

Yes, I know some local foresters claim there’s plenty of wood. Where’s the study?

-jsq

Short Link: