Fibrowatt’s approach to “Power from Poultry Litter” is to develop a project properly sized to meet the need of the poultry industry in a particular poultry-growing region. To provide this alternative litter management solution, we also must be mindful of economic criteria – therefore a plant is sized according to somewhat opposing factors.

The primary considerations for determining the plant size are:

  • the interest of the utility(s) that will purchase the electricity,
  • electrical interconnection and transmission system access,
  • the size and potential growth of the poultry industry in a region,
  • individual interest of regional poultry growers to supply poultry litter, and
  • how much of an interested grower’s litter they intend to supply.

At the heart of our decision on plant size is the proper balance between the need of the interested utility to obtain this type of renewable energy in a cost competitive manner and the need of the poultry industry for this alternative manure management solution.

In a general sense, an electrical power plant is a very capital-intensive project. The larger a power plant’s size, often the lower the per-megawatt cost for generating this electricity. That is why most modern fossil-fuel fired power plants are so large, often approaching 1,000 megawatts (MW) or more in capacity. At 1,000 MW, these plants are able to take advantage of “economies of scale” meaning “a reduction in the cost of producing something – brought about especially by increased size of production facilities.”

Since a Fibrowatt biomass power plant is capital-intensive, a higher plant electrical generating capacity can favor a lower energy-generation price, an important factor in Fibrowatt’s efforts to get a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with the utility(s). However, unlike with fossil fuel-fired units, which are able to source fuel from where they want –when they want – and as much as they want; Fibrowatt plant size is limited by fuel supply factors.

A Fibrowatt plant size is dependent on a defined quantity of biomass fuel generated in the region and the perceived value the poultry industry and an individual grower places on this important alternative. Therefore, Fibrowatt must balance the needs and desires of the local poultry industry with the need to provide cost-competitive power.

Based on a limit to the potential supply of litter from a particular poultry growing region, Fibrowatt has arrived at a size range that will normally fall between 40 MW and 80MW. In this range, Fibrowatt is able to meet the needs of concentrated poultry growing regions and take advantage of some economy of scale benefits – providing this power at a competitive renewable energy price.

While a poultry litter-fueled project is a cost competitive renewable energy resource, it will have a hard time directly competing with a 1,000 MW coal-fired power plant; at least as long as such a coal plant is not economically impacted by its “carbon-footprint.”

NOTE: Because we are dependent on a project-specific understanding of Fibrowatt’s value to the poultry growing region, the size of the plant might not be determined until well into the project development process.