Lake County To Benefit From Biomass Energy Projects

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LAKEVIEW, OR -- Lake County will get the largest amount of recently announced federal stimulus money to be used on biomass projects here in Oregon. $1.7 million will be used for the Lakeview cogeneration project, which is expected to produce enough electricity to sell to utility companies. County Commissioner Brad Winters said the project will be a big boost to the local environment and economy.

"What that means to Lake County is huge. Lake County is 8,500 square miles with 7,500 people, so one job in Lake County is equal to a hundred in Multnomah County. So, this is probably as big a project as we could ever hope to land here. It'll help out air quality too, because it'll help take an old boiler system offline at the sawmill and put in the new biomass, which has all the up-to-date scrubbers and everything, which produces much cleaner air in our community. So, it's a win-win-win for us here."

Winters said geothermal and solar companies are also taking an interest in Lake County.

As a condition of the federal funding, the projects have to be up and running by mid-February 2012.

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