Biomass plant construction to begin in June

Construction will begin in June on a biomass plant in Maricopa that will produce enough electricity to power 20,000 homes.

Hal Mitchell, CEO for Scottsdale-based Arbutus Bio-Energy, said Tuesday the plant will be operational in 2014 and employ 20 to 22 people.

Mitchell was one of the presenters at the Pinal Partnership’s first Renewable Energy Economic Summit and Conference, attended by 200 people, at the Mission Royale Golf Club in Casa Grande. The Pinal Partnership was formed in 2005 to bring together county leaders in business, government and nonprofits.

The biomass station, called Pinal Power, will be next to the existing Pinal Energy ethanol plant on the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway. Construction of the biomass station was first announced in September 2010.

Mitchell said the plant will burn such biomass as agricultural waste, tree trimmings and nutshells, which he said are a type of wood, that would otherwise end up in landfills. Electricity produced at the plant will be sold to various utility companies in California, he said.

Mayor Anthony Smith said before Tuesday's city council meeting the plant would provide “good tax revenue for the city.” 

“The co-location next to the ethanol plant will facilitate light manufacturing and other green industries to locate on a green campus,”  he said.