Energy Project May Be Just Garbage
February 19, 2011 by David R. Frazier,
After getting some negative comments as well as talking with an engineer, the GUARDIAN’s red flag began to wave over the electric generation project with Dynamis and Lloyd Mahaffey at the Ada Landfill.Last week the DAILY PAPER ran a big page one story which clearly said the firm operates a trash-to-electricity project at Barrow, Alaska. After talking directly with the plant operator on the frigid North Slope, we determined that to be NOT TRUE. There is NO ELECTRIC GENERATING PLANT at the Barrow trash facility. In fact the Dynamis thermal incinerator CONSUMES cheap locally abundant natural gas to heat the trash and reduce the mass by a factor of 10. Ten yards of municipal solid waste shrinks to 1 yard of ash. Not only was the Statesman under the impression trash was generating electricity in the tiny borough of about 4,500 souls, but Ada Commishes had same thought.
In the Statesman piece, Commish Sharon Ullman acknowledged the county put $2 million toward the Dynamis project, which it will get back within the next six months, Ullman said. “We paid for development of the plans. Dynamis will purchase the plans back from us. This arrangement qualifies for stimulus money,” Ullman said.
It is a very real possibility the county could be left holding a set of worthless plans for “dream power.” If it turns out that way the Commishes need to cut their (our) losses and not try to create a warm glow out of cold trash, claiming it is worthwhile to reduce the volume of waste even if the energy science turns out to be faulty and the pretense false.
We tried to get Idaho Power to comment on the proposed project for our skeptical July GUARDIAN post, but the utility declined, citing a policy of not commenting on proposals that have not been agreed upon.
EDITOR NOTE: The above article first appeared in the Boise Guardian. Of interest is the fact that project will consume large amounts of Natural Gas before the garbage can be used as fuel. Nampa and Team Tom have bought into this project and are satisfied with a less than 2% ROI, for those of you non accounting types...the city of Nampa is going to put up $55million and they might see a $1million a year return on their investment of Urban Renewal property tax dollars. This deal smells about as bad as the garbage they will use to fire the project.
This deal makes about as much sense as some of our other so called investments. Please people encourage someone you know who is qualified to run for city council this fall and look towards the mayors election. We cannot afford much more of this "prosperity"
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like basic 1st year college chemistry to me. It is no different than the process to reduce coal dust to charcoal. You don't get any "magic" from the process. It takes combustible material, carbonizes it in a reduced O2 atmosphere using natural gas for this part of the process. The carbonized waste is then burned to make steam to run a stem turbine that will be connected to a generator.
ReplyDeleteEvery wood stove on the market today works the same way. A whole cord of wood gets reduced to very small volume of ash material.
This project needs to be DOA before Nampa City Council pours $250K down a rat hole. My fears are they have been mesmerized by the people trying to sell this as something
Well, all the fools ain't dead yet. Subsidize bringing out the "burn barrels" and tire fired barbeque pits.
ReplyDeleteThere is a second meeting scheduled for today 5-16-11 to ok the spending of an additional $150,000 to sudy this issue.Just more of our tax money down the toilet.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find interesting is the endorsement from the paper for this project and they know nothing about it but have endorsed it along with the $250k for the "study". The outfit out of Seattle at least has a public record of successful projects. How they could endorse this secret concept is beyond my ability to comprehend.
ReplyDeleteIf a citizen were to submit a letter to the editor or a guest opinion on a project like this the maven's of print would want all manner of proof the project would be viable. It is almost like the more outrageous a project is the more support it will receive from the paper as well as elected officials.
I think it would be nice to see the science backing this up before a penny of public money gets spent.
You know the adage....."Garbage in, garbage out."
ReplyDeleteNow it's "Free tax money in, free tax money out."
If you don't have enough money for garbage studies just raise our taxes. It's simple - and garbage any way you look at it.
I am totally lost. How is it that the City of Nampa is contemplating investing Urban Renewal money in the Boise Town Dump?
ReplyDeleteI recently bought municipal bonds issued by the city of Nampa. These bonds pay 5.23% interest. Nampa is borrowing money at 5.23% and loaning it out at 2%? What are these dummies thinking?
ReplyDeleteIT ISN'T THEIR MONEY!!!!
THESE DUMMIES ARE LETTING THE TAXPAYERS BE TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS BY THESE PROMOTERS!!!
More Ada county silk suits coming over to Canyon county, selling the stupid Mayors a stupid plan to take the taxpayers hard earned money!!! This is government at it it's worst.