| 1890 |
| Wood as a primary
fuel supply |
Wood was the primary fuel for residential, commercial, and transportation
uses. |
| 1930 |
| Wood displaced by new fuels |
Kerosene and fuel oil began displacing wood for some commercial,
transportation, and residential uses. |
| 1950 |
| More new fuels displacing wood |
Electricity and natural gas displaced wood heat in homes and commercial
buildings. |
| 1973
|
| Wood use at all-time low |
Higher oil and gas prices and oil embargoes hit the country at
the time that wood consumption for energy was at an all-time low
of roughly 50 million tons per year. |
| 1974 |
| Rise in woodstove sales, switching by some industries from coal
to waste wood |
The oil crises of 1973-74 prompted significant increases in woodstove
sales for residential use. The paper and pulp industry also began
to install wood and black liquor boilers for steam and power displacing
fuel oil and coal. |
| 1978 |
| Public Utility
Regulatory Policies
Act (PURPA) passed |
PURPA guaranteed nonutility generators a market to sell power
by mandating that utilities pay þavoided costþ rates for any power
supplied by a qualifying facility. |
| 1984 |
| Startup of Burlington Electric plant |
Burlington Electric (Burlington, Vermont) built a 50-megawatt
wood-fired plant with electricity production as the primary purpose.
This plant was the first of several built since 1984. |
| 1985 |
| Standard Offer #4 contracts begin |
The Californian biomass power industry began to grow, eventually
adding 850 megawatts of power due to fuel cost escalation clauses
in the Standard Offer #4 contracts which were based on predicted
oil costs of $100 a barrel. These 10-year contracts guaranteed power
purchase rates. |
| 1989-90 |
| First trials of direct wood-fired gas
turbines conducted
| Pilot direct wood-fired gas turbine plants were tried for the
first time by Canadian Solifuels, Inc. (in Canada) and Aerospace
Research Corporation (in the United States). |
| 1990 |
| Biomass generating capacity at 6,000 megawatts |
Electricity generating capacity from biomass (not including municipal
solid waste) reached 6 gigawatts. Of 190 biomass-fired electricity
generating facilities, 184 were nonutility generators, mostly wood
and paper plants. |
| 1992 |
| Rise in biomass prices to $55 per dry ton in California |
The industry overbuilt capacity, with little regard for supply
limitations, resulting in escalating feedstock prices as the last
of the Standard Offer #4 contract power plants came on line. New
ources of biomass eventually reduced costs to an average of $35
per dry ton. |
| 1994 |
| Hot gas cleanup identified as key to gasification success. |
Successful operation of several biomass gasification tests identified
hot gas cleanup as key to widespread adoption of the technology.
Promising high efficiencies were achieved. |
| 1995 |
| Half of the California biomass power industry shut down |
As of the end of August 1995, 15 biomass power plants (500 megawatts)
had been closed through sales or buyout of their Standard Offer
#4 agreements, primarily as a cost reduction strategy by the local
utilities required to buy the power, which had sometimes risen to
more than 10 cents per kilowatthour, depending on the contract. |