Green Circle could start producing for American markets

A product manufactured in Jackson County could become a source of renewable energy in the United States as the country looks to reduce its use of coal and thus the emission of greenhouse gases.
Wood pellets produced by Green Circle Bio Energy Inc. at its plant in Cottondale are currently bought by the European power industry for use as a coal substitute, but efforts are under way to develop the market in America as well.
The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce has joined in the promotion of Green Circle’s product, which falls into the energy category of “biomass.”
Following a presentation by Green Circle president and CEO Olaf Roed at the chamber’s First Friday Power Breakfast at the Jackson County Agriculture Conference Center, chamber president and CEO Art Kimbrough spoke of the local effort.
“I’ve had the opportunity to speak at several major forums across the state of Florida and to go to Washington, D.C., to testify to nearly all of Florida’s U.S. Congressional and Senatorial delegation, advocating for incentives that will open the U.S. coal-fired power plant market to Green Circle’s product,” Kimbrough said.
“Many people don’t realize that currently the only major coal-fired power plant market for Green Circle’s product is Europe,” he said. “If the United States market opens up to them, they will double in size here in Jackson County almost overnight.
“To put things into perspective, it could be said that Green Circle is to large-scale renewable energy production what Henry Ford’s first assembly-line plant was to automobile production,” Kimbrough said. “It is a game-changing development in the scale of wood pellet production and it is entirely compatible with the rural character of our local environment.”
Green Circle is owned by the JCE Group of Sweden and opened its first energy wood pellet plant on 225 acres on U.S. Highway 231 near Interstate 10 in April. With an investment of $110 million, Green Circle uses pine pulpwood and sawmill residue to create wood pellets. It doesn’t use high quality sawmill-ready timber, but uses what’s left by the lumber industry, including the bark.
The plant, which employs 50 people, has an annual production capacity of 550,000 tons, with the wood pellets trucked to Port Panama City for shipment overseas.
“Energy wood pellets are developing into an energy commodity traded worldwide, and is in the process of becoming an essential product in the power generating industry,” Roed says on the company’s Web site. “Wood pellets are already established as a consumer product for residence heating,” and, he continues, “As the United States is predicted to increasingly become more concerned about the global warming situation, as well as focusing more on the renewable energy sources in light of the overall energy security situation, a domestic market is likely to develop for industrial use of energy wood pellets.”
At Friday’s chamber meeting, local business owner David Melvin introduced Roed as a dedicated family man and one with a high level of business integrity. Some 150 people attended the early morning event.
Roed talked about the plant and the company, the energy situation, and the business concept of wood biomass. Wood pellets are made by crushing wood fiber, drying it and using a high pressure press to form it into pellets.
Roed said the U.S. energy market consists of 39 percent petroleum (oil and gasoline), 23 percent natural gas, 22 percent coal, 8 percent nuclear, and 7 percent renewables, with that category made up of biomass at 3.6 percent, hydroelectric at 2.7 percent, geothermal at 0.3 percent, wind at 0.3 percent, and solar at 0.1 percent.
He said two-thirds of the global energy demand is satisfied by oil and gas, but because the exploration and production of oil is increasingly expensive, meeting the demand is unsustainable.
“Reducing the future energy security risks has an enormous value to the world economy,” he said. “Climate change may be a big part of the debate, but energy independence is the driving force in the growth of the renewable energy sector.”
To put the challenge in perspective, he said that replacing one year of oil consumption would take 4.5 billion solar-paneled rooftops, 3 million wind turbines, or 2,500 nuclear power plants, so that while “fossil fuels are here to stay for a long time to come … it will take all forms of renewables to make a difference.”
Wood pellets are “a viable alternative for the power industry to reduce CO-2 emissions,” he said, adding that there is a considerable net gain in energy after allowing for the energy used in manufacturing and shipping.
Also, he said, the product is sustainable because of the forest plantations in the world, led by China, the United States and Russia.
“In light of the world’s energy situation and the threat of climate changes, wood for fuel, as a renewable energy resource, is set to play an important role in the forest product industry,” Roed said.
Kimbrough believes the long-term impact of Green Circle has “only begun” to be felt.
“Green Circle’s choice to locate in Jackson County puts Jackson County squarely in the bull’s eye of the Global Renewable Energy equation,” he said.