Debate and suspicion over the proposed biomass plant grabbed the attention of Tallahassee residents in the past few months… but plans for it have been actually in the works for years.
It appears that a search for renewable energy is what led to the proposed biomass plant.
At the end of 2005, Tallahassee Commissioners were looking for ways to diversify the city’s energy, bring down costs and qualify for a federal grant.
By January 17th, 2006, Biomass, Gas and Electric, known as BG&E, approached commissioners with a way to provide power by using wood scraps.
By June 28, 2006, BG&E had offered to build a power plant in Tallahassee but the city had to buy its product.
Negotiations continued until October 11, 2006 when Tallahassee Commissioners gave the plant the green light.
“The City should be commended for taking an aggressive step forward in trying to become energy independent,” said Glenn Farris, the CEO of BG&E on October 11, 2006.
The plant would be built near Innovation Park, and BG&E committed funds for a research facility at Florida State University.
But problems arose by January 10, 2007. FSU said it could not sign off on the land deal with the State of Florida unless it had a firm agreement from the city, and two days later, the deal was off.
But that didn’t last long, two weeks later the deal was back on.
“I think we had one vision on how it needed to go. We probably both had the same vision, we just had different roads to get there,” said T.K. Wetherall, President of Florida State University, on January 26, 2007.
Jump to April 16, 2008 when FSU officials met with city commissioners about getting the plant into the school’s master plan to speed up the building process.
By August 2008 residents began questioning the plant… and those questions multiplied and grew louder by October when the Department of Environmental Protection announced it would soon issue permits for the plant.