Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Seeks to Research Biomethane Resources for Its Customers
Jan 24, 2008 - PRNewswire-FirstCall
Pacific Gas and Electric Company today
announced that it has issued a Request for Information
(RFI) to identify partners for a potential project
to demonstrate technologies that could cost-effectively
produce significant quantities of biomethane -- pipeline-quality,
renewable natural gas. The demonstration project is
part of PG&E's commitment to increase the amount of
clean energy it provides customers throughout its
northern and central California service area.
Biomethane is pipeline-quality gas derived
from biomass as defined by the California Energy Commission
(CEC), which includes any organic material not derived
from fossil fuels, including agricultural crops, agricultural
and forestry wastes and residues, and construction
wood wastes, among others. Biomethanation is the process
of converting biomass to biomethane.
"There is a tremendous opportunity in
California to utilize biomass, which would otherwise
go unused, to contribute significantly to meeting
the state's climate goals," said Fong Wan, vice president
of Energy Procurement for PG&E. "With this request
for information, we hope to identify promising biomethanation
technologies and understand what the market needs
for support. Biomethanation is the latest example
of how PG&E is planning for the future by exploring
innovative technologies to produce and deliver clean
energy."
California and the western region of
North America contain large quantities of biomass,
which could meaningfully contribute toward the state's
renewable energy requirements while simultaneously
providing other benefits, including greenhouse gas
emission reduction, fire prevention, improved local
air quality and landfill disposal reduction.
Emerging biomethanation technologies
and processes may increase conversion efficiency,
expand the range of usable feedstock, and improve
the quality of biomethane products. To accelerate
the commercial availability of these emerging biomethanation
technologies, PG&E is seeking partners to develop
and operate a facility that will demonstrate the technical
and economic feasibility of emerging technologies
for developing significant quantities of biomethane.
Through the proposed biomethanation
demonstration project, PG&E intends to promote viable
biomethanation technologies that convert CEC-approved
sources of biomass into biomethane that could be injected
into PG&E's gas transmission system and delivered
for high-value uses such as dispatchable power generation.
PG&E will hold a networking forum on
March 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at its San Francisco
headquarters to answer questions about the RFI and
provide an opportunity for potential project partners
to meet. Parties interested in attending the forum
must register online by February 22, 2008 at: http://www.pge.com/pipeline/rfi/rfirsvp.pdf.
For more information about the RFI, or to participate
in PG&E's online biomethanation RFI forum, please
visit: http://www.pge.com/rfi.
PG&E is a leader in utilizing biomethane.
The utility recently received approval by the California
Public Utilities Commission of its gas purchase agreements
with Microgy, Inc. and with BioEnergy Solutions to
deliver up to 8,000 MMBtu per day each of pipeline
quality biomethane captured from cow manure.
PG&E currently supplies 12 percent
of its power from qualifying renewable sources under
California's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program.
PG&E continues to aggressively add renewable electric
power resources to its supply and is on target to
exceed 20 percent under contract or delivered by 2010.
On average, more than 50 percent of the energy PG&E
delivers to its customers comes from generating sources
that emit no carbon dioxide, providing among the cleanest
energy in the nation.
For more information about Pacific Gas
and Electric Company, please visit the company's web
site at http://www.pge.com/
CONTACT: PG&E News Department, +1-415-973-5930
Web site: http://www.pge.com/
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