UK largest renewable energy supplier building Longview plant along Columbia River - The Daily News

UK largest renewable energy supplier building Longview plant along Columbia River

The self-described largest power station in the United Kingdom is building a plant along the Columbia River in Longview to harvest wood pellets for Asia to generate power.

In an area known for its timber industry, the company Drax is aiming to use Pacific Northwest forests to replace coal overseas — a plan the company says will limit fossil fuel use, while critics say wood-burning energy is as bad for the climate and public health as wildfires.

Local jobs

Drax, under its subsidiary Pinnacle Renewable Holdings, bought the local land for $13.5 million from Pacific Lumber and Shipping at the Port of Longview, breaking ground on the 48-acre plot in July.

The facility is still in early phases of development, but the company projects to be up and running by the first quarter of 2025 and bring up to 60 local jobs.

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Crews work to build a wood pellet production facility at the Port of Longview. The goal of the UK-based company is to ship pellets to Asia, where they would be burned for energy.

Ted Sprague, president of the Cowlitz Economic Development Council, said he found Drax to be well thought of in the wood products industry, and that this business would leave a good footprint for the region’s tax base.

“I get the sense that they’re going to use as many local folks as possible,” Sprague said.

Drax estimates the project will cost them $250 million to build and contracted with JH Kelly, an industrial construction company based out of Longview, for buildout.

Rising demand

The demand for biomass — natural products like wood and organic waste used to produce energy — is growing as industries search for ways to meet a rising call for renewable energy by both consumers as well as governments aiming to lower emissions.

The market size for wood pellets is expected to grow from around $9 billion to more than $13 billion in 2030, according to market research and consulting firm Grand View Research.

Laurie Nelson-Cooley, Manager of Business Development for the Port of Longview, said the port has been actively pursuing the wood pellet industry for business partnerships on the port since 2011.

“We made Longview a go-to choice for future pellet plants. Pinnacle Renewables, now Drax, saw this potential in 2018,” Nelson-Cooley said.
A rendering of the wood pellet production facility estimated to be running by the first quarter of 2025.

A 2019 report from the company says Pinnacle was the third largest producer of industrial wood pellets in the world.

Drax operates 11 pellet production facilities in the United States and 13 in Canada.

The facility in Longview will only be a wood pellet production facility, and will not be generating any electricity onsite. All 11 of the Drax-owned industrial facilities in the United States, located in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, are pellet production facilities.

In the south, wood pellets are shipped to the huge Drax Power Station in Selby, England.

Using natural products like wood and organic waste to produce electricity is more common in the UK than in America. In 2021, a parliament study shows nearly 13% of total UK electricity supply was generated by biomass, like burning wood, while the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports about 1% of total U.S. electricity was created by biomass in 2022.

In 2022, Drax says it generated 11% of the UK’s renewable energy — more than any other generator.

Sustainability, air quality questions

Drax says it uses low-grade roundwood, sawdust and forest residues, or non-construction grade timber, to create pellets. But some climate advocacy groups are pushing back, saying the project this company is proposing is a risk to the climate and public health.

Portland-based climate advocacy nonprofit 350 PDX has called biomass a “false climate solution,” claiming that the burning of wood pellets is not much more sustainable than burning coal or other fossil fuels.

Grant Stoker, a communications manager for Drax, said the company is not yet at a point where it knows where it will be sourcing forest products and sawmill residues to produce pellets in Longview.

Other Drax sites have faced fines for violating air quality rules by releasing pollutants that can cause cancer. A 2017 state report shows cancer among Cowlitz County residents was higher than the state average.
An overhead map of the Drax site location relative to the Weyerhaeuser and Interfor Sawmills in Longview.

The state of Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality fined Drax for excess release of volatile organic compounds, air pollutants linked to cancer and breathing problems, from its two facilities in the state in 2022. The two settlements totaled $3.2 million, and came after the company was fined $2.5 million by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality for releasing more than three times the pollutants permitted for its plant in Gloster, Mississippi.

Stoker said the company discovered and self-reported an issue with the Gloster plants’ emissions calculations, and that Drax is continuing to work with environmental consultants to monitor air quality permit requirements for that site.

While the Longview site is not yet at the air quality permitting phase, Stoker said Drax will be working with Southwest Clean Air Agency to guarantee its compliance with state, local and federal air quality regulations.