Seattle to provide "wood waste" energy to Sacramento

The City of Seattle has announced an energy trade between Seattle and Sacramento.

Seattle will offer regular renewable energy to Sacramento in exchange for some normal power to help Seattle cope with its high winter energy needs.

The renewable energy in question is a biomass plant, specifically a plant owned by Sierra Pacific Industries that converts wood waste from logging and construction into energy.

In theory, wood waste plants are zero carbon emitters because they emit no more carbon than the trees soaked up during the course of their lifetimes. In practice, wood waste plants produce much more CO2 than natural gas plants, but a little less than coal.

The 10 year agreement stands to bring an additional $5 million in revenue to Seattle City Light.

Source: Seattle.gov