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SRS Constructs
New "Clean Energy" Steam Plant for A Area
As part of a collaborative
process between the DOE, WSRC and Honeywell Building Solutions,
the Savannah River Site is building a new clean energy and
highly efficient steam plant.
The new plant replaces
a 1950s vintage coal-powered facility with a clean, renewable
plant powered by biomass that will provide an efficient, long-term,
reliable source of steam to the site’s A Area.
The A
Area energy improvement project and another one planned for
D Area are among the largest within DOE. The overall goal
of the projects is to make it self sustaining by utilizing
only renewable biomass waste products from within the SRS
for its fuel sources.
Starting
in August, the A Area plant will provide steam for industrial
uses to the Savannah River National Laboratory, a few administrative
facilities and the Dynamic Underground Stripping Project,
a groundwater cleanup technology.
“This construction
is being funded and managed under a unique agreement that
allows SRS to repay the project costs over a period of nine
years,” said Pat Livengood, lead project engineer for
this effort. “The estimated capital cost of the project
is approximately $14 million, with an average projected savings
of $1.5 million per year. So, as you can see, savings generated
from the new system will be used to pay the total costs of
the project.”
The second upgrade
project in D, K and L Area is scheduled for completion in
late Fiscal Year 2010. This will be significantly larger than
the A-Area Steam Plant Replacement project.
The current
plant, installed in 1951, is too large for today’s reduced
A Area steam requirements, resulting in venting and reduced
plant efficiency; the boiler plant is also past its useful
life, requiring additional maintenance and repair.
It is the site’s
intent that the biomass or wood-fired boiler will be primarily
supplied from wood chips from waste generated by SRS forest
management activities, under the direction of the U.S. Forest
Service-Savannah River Site. The new system will result in
lower environmental emissions, less energy consumption, lower
operating and maintenance costs, and compliance with new Clean
Air and Water Act Standards. |
