North Carolina’s Bet on Biomass Energy is in Peril, with Energy Targets not met and concerns about environmental justice

North Carolina’s attempt to incorporate biogas into its energy mix as a reliable source of energy seems to be in doubt after the states utilities commissioner reported that both poultry and swine-waste-to-energy projects had failed to meet their energy targets. This led to supply chain problems, prompting calls to review the policy. 

North Carolina, August 2007. adoptedThe Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard, (REPS), requires state-owned utilities to obtain up to 12.5 per cent of their energy mix from renewables by 2021. Poultry and other swine waste can be used for biogas production. 

REPS adoption spurred energy partnerships between waste to-energy producers, utility companies like Duke Energy. Duke Energy is one of the largest investor-owned utilities and has been a long-time supporter and advocate of biomass.

REPS is a program that allows utility companies to buy renewable energy credit (RECs) from companies that produce electricity from swine and chicken waste. A renewable credit is one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity produced by a renewable source that is supplied to the grid. The credits are purchased by utility companies to meet the new renewable energy targets.

In its 2021 ReportThe North Carolina Utilities Commission, which oversees energy matters, reported that companies that produce electricity from poultry and swine dung have been failing to meet their energy production targets since 2014. This was due in part to ongoing technological and operational problems. 

The commission has therefore been revising its annual estimates of energy from biomass-powered energy sources. It stated that the technology is still in its early stages and that there have been operational challenges. 

North Carolina is home to approximately 2,000 industrial hog farms that produce a total of 9,000,000 hogs annually. According to the North Carolina Poultry Federation (NCPF), the state is second in poultry production behind Georgia. More than 5,700 farms raise more that 500 million chickens and turkeys each year. Advocates view the state’s support of biogas from poultry or swine waste as an industry-approved answer to the challenge of waste management and disposal that allows commercial operators to make greater profits. 

Environmental and citizen groups argue that biogas produced from animal waste is more harmful than it is beneficial, and can lead to increased ammonia emissions and water and air pollution. Advocates say the state should stop funding dirty energy with its stalled waste to-energy projects.    

Biogas is mainly made up of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. It is produced by the conversion or decomposition of biomass sources like wood chips and poultry and swine waste. Many clean energy advocates consider biogas and biomass to be a byproduct of fossil fuels. They are harmful to communities and can contaminate the environment. 

The commission has allowed utility companies to delay compliance with waste-to energy targets since REPS was made law. This is because they couldn’t supply enough electricity. 

According to the commission report, the waste to energy target from animal waste for all North Carolina utility companies has been lowered from 700,000. megawatt hours (MWh), to 500,000MWh in 2019, and the 2021 target only moderately increased to 900,000.MWh. 

Dr. Ryan Emanuel of Duke University said that woody biomass and swine biogas look, at least on the surface, like easy ways to help North Carolina reach its goals of reducing net global warming gas emissions.

The state’s 2019 clean energy plan, he noted, leans hard on both biogas and biomass. Emanuel stated that the energy plan is in danger of being undermined by the fact that these energy sources are not performing as expected and that they promote environmental racism.

He said that companies who hope to use swine-biogas will claim that they are solving the problems that the waste poses for the surrounding communities by capturing and processing the methane. 

He said that the new process does not address water and air issues. He also stated that these operations only exacerbate existing disparities in distribution of environmental harms because they force us into maintaining models of food production which burden vulnerable and marginalized communities and pollute the environment. 

Duke Energy, one major investor-owned utility company in the state has already indicated that it is unlikely it will meet its future trash-to-energy targets. This was due to continuing difficulties in generating electricity with poultry and swine dung from the power plants it has contracted. 

Duke Energy shared its compliance plan with the utilities commission. The utility stated that it was anticipating difficulties in meeting targets because suppliers have either delayed or reduced the quantity of RECs to produce. The plan also pointed out that one facility was still in use for repairs and modifications. It was unlikely that the facility will generate electricity until 2023. 

According to the utilities commission, Duke Energy expects that a new poultry waste to-energy project will be operational in 2022, and three others in 2023. However, the commission expressed doubts about Duke’s ambitions, stating that operational problems and start-up issues could hinder the utility’s waste-to energy targets.

Dominion Energy, another North Carolina utility company, also expressed dissatisfaction with producers who generate electricity from swine waste. The compliance report it filed with state utilities commission stated that. According to the utility, it was looking for opportunities to purchase sufficient poultry-powered electricity from North Carolina and other states in order to meet its 2021-2023 REPS requirements.  

Dominion has invested in a 500 million biogas joint venture known as Align Renewable Natural Gas, or Align RNG. It is a joint venture with Smithfield Foods, which is the country’s largest pork producer. The project involves the construction of more than 30 miles worth of pipeline connecting 19 hog farms located in eastern North Carolina’s poorest counties, Duplin & Sampson. The methane derived from swine dung will be piped to a central facility for processing, and then sold as natural gaz.     

Advocates and community groups are concerned about the potential for new waste-toenergy facilities that will exacerbate the existing environmental problems. Roy Cooper’s declared commitment to a clean-energy transition. Advocates claim that profiting from obsolete waste management practices that pollute the environment and endanger the public’s health also negates efforts of the Biden administration for longstanding environmental injustices in low-income communities that are disproportionately affected due to industrial pollution.      

Duke Energy signed a power purchase contract to purchase electricity from North Carolina Renewable Power, the biomass-burning power station in Lumberton currently in idle.

But since June 2020, the utility and NCRP have been embroiled in a dispute, with each  accusing the other of defaulting on contractual obligations, company correspondence filed with the utilities commission shows. Duke Energy claimed that NCRP had failed to deliver the energy it promised under its power purchase agreement with the utility in a November 2020 letter to NCRPs legal counsel. 

According to Dukes representative, our requests for information were met with incomplete information and untruths.  

Duke Energy is suing for compensation for the damages it claims it sustained because of NCRPs failure to perform. The utility has already indicated that it will terminate the energy purchase agreement (with NCRP) citing defaults as well as accumulated damages. 

The utility calculated that it would require more than 250,000 renewable electricity credits (RECs) from poultry waste in order to comply with its REPS compliance obligations for 2020. 

North Carolina Renewable Power (NCRP), which has been operating in Robeson County, since 2015, has gained notoriety for repeatedly exceeding the emission limits for carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide. Fine particulate matter, also known as PM2.5, is also prohibited by its permit. Residents and environmental groups are fiercely defending the company’s application for a new permit. They argue that it cannot be trusted to be a good neighbour. Management of the company stated that it will not operate the plant until it receives the new permit from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. 

Carey Davis, executive vice president of Georgia Renewable Power (which owns NCRP), responded to a request for comment. He said that the company was aware that the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality was reviewing public comments and that the agency would issue a report and recommendations regarding the proposed permit.

In a response to Duke Energys allegations,  NCRP accused the utility of reneging on its obligations by failing to pay for the energy and RECs it has already purchased. The letter stated that Duke’s abuse of its monopolistic market position, and refusal to pay NCRP what he owes, has prevented the power station from being operational.   

A Duke Energy representative Randy Wheeless said that the utility company is currently in confidential discussions with the North Carolina facility. From 2015 to 2020, Duke Energy purchased power from the facility. He said that the purchase power was used to help Duke Energy comply with North Carolina’s REPS regulations because the facility was using poultry waste for fuel. 

By the time this article was published, NCRP hadn’t responded to any comments or requests for information regarding the dispute.

Despite the stagnant progress of waste to energy projects and the setbacks in the states energy targets North Carolina is quickly-tracking regulations which would expand the state’s footprint for biogas or biomass energy. 

There’s no doubt that now is the time for an objective review of North Carolinas renewable energy policy in view of the evidence we now have from the impacted communities, said Donna Chavis, senior climate campaigner with the nonprofit Friends of the Earth. She added that another reason for reevaluating the state’s renewable power matrix is the federal effort to pass the Environmental Justice for All Act. The states will have to take action if it passes. Chavis stated that it would be better to do it yourself than being forced by federal law.

U.S. Reps. Raul Gilva (D.Ariz.), and A. Donald McEachin were the first to introduce the landmark legislation. In July 2020, a companion bill was introduced in the Senate by Senator Kamala Harris. Harris was then elected vice president in December 2020. 

The legislation, which is still being referred to by committees, has been hailed as the most comprehensive and comprehensive environmental justice bill in Congressional History. It aims at addressing long-standing environmental injustices that have historically harmed communities of color, tribal, and Indigenous communities throughout the country.   

Rev. Mac Legerton, codirector of Robeson County Cooperative for Sustainable Development. 

He said that the handholding of fossil fuels and industrial farming poses new and largely unknown challenges to efforts to reduce carbon emission across the United States. Legerton stated that Eastern North Carolina is the hub for incineration and pipelining of poultry waste, as well as the burning, burning, and emission of methane gas from hog lagoons, in the name renewable energy. 

Lisa Sorg from N.C. Policy Watch, an independent media organization, said that the subject of North Carolina energy policy is so politically charged that revisiting it could be problematic.

We have several state legislators who are very big on natural gas and biogas right now, she said, so, you’ve got big fossil fuels and huge agribusiness interests in North Carolina and they want these sorts of waste-to-energy technologies to proliferate.