Nebraska's Biomass Energy Generation

Biomass Energy Generation in Nebraska

In 2006, nearly 60 million kilowatthours of electricity were generated by biomass energy in Nebraska, an increase of 38.5 percent from the 2005 generation of 42,252,221 kilowatthours (see graph and table below). Since previous years do not include data for the Papillion Creek Treatment Plant, the 2006 total generation would be 53,955,705 kilowatthours without Papillion Creek's generation. This would still indicate an increase of 27.7 percent from 2005.

The Theresa Street Waste Water Treatment Plant, operated by the City of Lincoln, started generating electricity from biomass in November, 1995. All of the electricity is used by the plant in its operations. The Theresa Street facility uses an anaerobic digestion process which is the breaking down of organic solids by microorganisms into a more stable form. The production of methane gas is a by-product of the anaerobic digestion process. At the Theresa Street facility, the methane gas is used by two enginators as fuel to generate electrical power and to provide heat for the digestion process. The enginators can produce as much as 900 kilowatts of power while maintaining a temperature of 98 degrees Fahrenheit in the three egg-shaped digesters. This benefits the environment by reducing the need for electricity produced from fossil fuels and utilizes the methane gas which would otherwise be wasted.

Elk City Station, operated by the Omaha Public Power District, is the first power plant in Nebraska to collect and burn methane to produce electricity. The station started generating electricity from methane in April, 2002. The methane is obtained from the nearby Douglas County Landfill. Elk City Station is a base load unit indicating that it can run year round. Elk City Station recently completed an expansion and now has a total capacity of 4.6 megawatts. The average annual output could power 4,000 homes.

The City of Omaha operates the Missouri River Treatment Plant and the Papillion Creek Treatment Plant. The plants started generating electricity from methane in 1985. The Missouri River Treatment Plant added a 1 MW generator in 2001 in addition to the existing 1 MW generator installed in 1985. At this time, only data for the Missouri River Treatment Plant from 2003 to the present and data for the Papillion Creek Treatment Plant for 2005 and 2006 is available.

For more information, see Operational Electric Generating Units.

Biomass Energy Generation
Nebraska, 1995-2008
[Kilowatthours (kWh)]

Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
1995
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street											527,967	536,704	1,064,671
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
1996
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	475,835	455,180	531,466	496,895	494,386	452,030	444,374	NA	449,145	518,997	533,345	495,673	5,347,326
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
1997
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	475,145	470,193	465,408	444,243	451,930	395,536	427,047	444,824	430,869	405,310	421,076	594,752	5,426,333
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
1998
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	356,184	353,546	515,692	495,127	475,022	455,485	518,262	474,437	531,461	585,938	527,152	575,747	5,864,053
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
1999
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	386,161	50,334	444,357	534,458	438,728	440,902	469,599	379,075	390,186	445,960	468,213	528,134	4,976,107
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
2000
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	423,376	439,912	485,576	437,202	452,717	457,117	353,261	428,277	445,165	444,748	527,568	493,516	5,388,435
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
2001
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	439,301	307,709	318,799	478,894	487,150	465,260	413,381	434,901	432,526	537,962	482,764	445,511	5,244,158
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
2002
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	501,382	304,316	425,097	528,152	493,526	417,135	454,020	467,004	440,354	548,120	502,591	496,613	5,578,310
Omaha Public Power District
Elk City Station				1,480,300	2,097,840	2,141,070	2,200,580	2,272,140	2,081,680	2,222,640	2,275,330	2,355,120	19,126,700
2002 Total													24,705,010
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
2003
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	409,730	410,086	478,173	474,506	372,398	312,186	354,124	387,408	334,554	244,006	298,510	397,668	4,473,349
Omaha, City of
Missouri River Treatment Plant	778,793	698,537	666,710	588,479	649,225	835,126	1,136,587	1,299,479	1,206,082	963,469	573,067	1,050,193	10,445,747
Omaha Public Power District
Elk City Station	2,334,780	2,134,500	2,322,810	2,259,930	2,331,240	2,263,890	2,226,230	2,194,070	2,241,680	2,303,380	2,264,740	2,211,980	27,089,230
2003 Total													42,008,326
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
2004
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	355,374	403,792	482,435	447,215	413,743	372,889	363,310	404,140	400,774	393,540	396,783	494,980	4,928,975
Omaha, City of
Missouri River Treatment Plant	1,106,210	912,449	921,146	993,668	1,280,822	1,340,503	1,127,654	997,775	1,122,228	987,337	989,329	1,114,236	12,893,357
Omaha Public Power District
Elk City Station	2,323,210	2,118,560	2,324,940	2,228,740	2,245,020	2,050,020	2,332,240	2,208,140	2,156,130	2,292,420	2,184,890	2,274,360	26,738,670
2004 Total													44,561,002
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
2005
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	472,769	351,382	273,159	262,521	306,386	399,691	373,565	305,994	347,047	480,041	482,768	524,297	4,579,620
Omaha, City of
Missouri River Treatment Plant	1,199,149	912,449	1,133,768	1,025,940	822,402	853,461	774,682	765,182	728,305	759,694	733,649	1,051,650	10,760,331
Omaha, City of
Papillion Creek Treatment Plant	389,000	345,000	751,000	948,000	931,000	877,000	868,000	806,000	652,000	605,000	605,000	683,000	8,460,000
Omaha Public Power District
Elk City Station	2,348,080	2,067,200	2,320,220	2,229,580	2,305,270	2,093,480	2,279,130	2,318,660	2,197,750	1,810,150	2,671,990	2,270,760	26,912,270
2005 Total													50,712,221
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
2006
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	476,396	349,794	275,203	282,155	441,164	492,296	402,349	405,955	395,431	415,596	438,710	472,777	4,847,826
Omaha, City of
Missouri River Treatment Plant	1,028,305	983,075	1,011,015	1,031,873	1,047,320	806,660	1,047,606	1,163,909	817,619	894,836	926,088	954,161	11,712,467
Omaha, City of
Papillion Creek Treatment Plant	364,000	325,000	342,000	347,000	381,000	345,000	313,000	389,000	425,000	401,000	422,000	523,000	4,577,000
Omaha Public Power District
Elk City Station	2,250,000	2,027,300	2,369,600	2,172,990	2,262,060	3,165,710	3,326,220	3,973,310	3,840,150	4,052,060	3,935,592	4,020,420	37,395,412
2006 Total													58,532,705
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
2007
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	341,803	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Omaha, City of
Missouri River Treatment Plant	1,103,334	833,348	893,166	858,385	980,249	1,011,977	1,089,264	1,115,486	1,057,953	1,164,689	1,029,223	1,189,823	12,326,897
Omaha, City of
Papillion Creek Treatment Plant	229,000	240,000	318,000	347,000	305,000	282,000	311,000	339,000	266,000	230,000	201,000	209,000	3,277,000
Omaha Public Power District
Elk City Station	3,932,422	3,507,015	3,903,094	3,746,656	3,817,969	3,720,893	3,906,880	3,900,823	3,868,109	4,008,518	3,849,507	4,020,499	46,182,385
2007 Total													NA
Year Company Plant	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual Total
2008
Lincoln, City of
Theresa Street	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Omaha, City of
Missouri River Treatment Plant	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Omaha, City of
Papillion Creek Treatment Plant	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Omaha Public Power District
Elk City Station	3,908,130	3,448,933	3,515,835	3,879,574	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
2008 Total													NA

Sources: Omaha Public Power District, Omaha, NE. The City of Lincoln, Lincoln, NE. The City of Omaha, Omaha, NE. Nebraska Energy Office, Lincoln, NE.

Note: NA = Not Available.

This table was updated on May 8, 2008. Typically, there is one month between updates.

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