Santee Cooper signs PPA for AD project

Power utility Santee Cooper has agreed to purchase power generated from an anaerobic digestion (AD) facility currently under construction at Burrows Hall Farm, a hog farm in Williamsburg County, S.C.

Santee Cooper has partnered with AD facility engineering company Environmental Fabrics Inc. and Clemson University to build the Burros Hall Renewable Energy Facility. Gaston, S.C.-based EFI will build, own and operate the digester, which will produce about 180 kilowatts of electricity. It is expected to be generating power early this summer.  

Clemson University’s South Carolina Institute for Energy Studies assisted in implementing the project, and said that it evaluated more than 20 different companies before recommending EFI. The company has installed hundreds of digesters around the world, but this project is a first in the Southeast, said EFI CEO Dennis Shanklin. Shanklin holds three application patents for his design of floating wetland structures, lagoon covers, and permeable water reservoir covers.

The South Carolina Energy Office and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture provided a grant to help fund the project.

Though the state does not currently have a renewable portfolio standard, Santee Cooper leads South Carolina in renewable energy amongst power utilities, with 197 megawatts already online or under contract to come online in the next few years. Its renewable energy sources come from landfill gas, woody biomass, solar and wind.

 Most recently, the utility announced two long-term power purchase agreements with four biomass power plants operating or in development across the state (see http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/5134/ppa-power).