News in brief OLD TOWN: ELECTRICITY MADE USING G-P BOILER

Electricity was produced Sunday for the first time using Georgia-Pacific’s newly installed biomass boiler. “Currently, we’re still generating power,” G-P spokeswoman Kelli Manigault said Monday. The boiler was producing steam at a rate of 55,000 pounds per hour, and 3.3 megawatts of electricity were made using the turbine, she said. Mill officials were slightly delayed in producing electricity after finding a few things that needed to be addressed while conducting system checks in the boiler, Manigault explained. “We will continue [making electricity] and checking out our system as we ramp up our rates,” Manigault said. Mill officials plan to bring production rates up to 154,000 pounds of steam per hour, and have the turbine making 11 megawatts of electricity soon. Manigault said that by the end of the month, mill officials hope to not be purchasing power. G-P successfully fired its $27.2 million biomass boiler for the first time last month, but used natural gas for the test while it awaits permission to burn waste wood chips. Mill officials recently applied to the DEP for permission to use construction and demolition debris wood chips as a substitute fuel source because of its cost and availability. The construction debris is the least expensive fuel used in boilers of this kind, but some residents have expressed concern about the effect of emissions on air quality. The DEP has scheduled a public hearing on the application for May 5. (Aimee Dolloff, BDN)