Great River Energy purchases Elk River Resource Recovery Facility
Maple Grove, Minn. -- On Wed., April 28, Great River Energy finalized the purchase of the Elk River Resource Recovery Facility, which processes the municipal solid waste (MSW) used to make refuse-derived fuel (RDF) for powering Great River Energy’s Elk River Station power plant. Great River Energy previously owned 15 percent of the processing facility. The other 85 percent was owned by Resource Recovery Technologies (RRT).
The power plant is a 35 MW facility with the capacity to convert energy from as much as 1,000 tons of RDF each day. The acquisition of the processing facility, along with the continued operation of the power plant, helps Great River Energy meet the Minnesota Renewable Energy Standard which requires the state’s electric utilities to generate 25 percent of their power with renewable energy sources by the year 2025.
To better reflect the integrated nature of these two facilities, the power plant is now named the Elk River Energy Recovery Station, and the processing facility is now named the Elk River Resource Processing Plant.
“Elk River Energy Recovery Station is a valuable resource for Great River Energy and the surrounding communities,” said Wayne Hanson, Great River Energy director of Minnesota generation. “The processing facility is critical to keeping the power plant operating,” he said.
Under a 20-year joint venture agreement with Great River Energy, RRT had been responsible for operating and maintaining the processing facility. RRT also participated in a 20-year processing agreement with adjacent counties to supply MSW to the processing facility. However, both agreements expired in August 2009.
As part of the acquisition, Great River Energy also purchased from RRT the Becker ash landfill, which has received the ash from the Elk River Energy Recovery Station for the past 20 years and only contains ash from the plant. This 86-acre facility has sufficient space to receive the plant’s ash for another 40 years.
Contracts with Anoka and Sherburne County waste haulers to deliver MSW to the Elk River Resource Processing Plant have been finalized and regulatory permits and licenses are in place. According to Hanson, support from these two counties and the local haulers have been critical to the continued operation of the power plant.
About Great River EnergyGreat River Energy is a not-for-profit cooperative which provides wholesale electric service to 28 distribution cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Those member cooperatives distribute electricity to more than 639,000 member consumers – or about 1.7 million people. With $3 billion in assets, Great River Energy is the second largest electric power supplier in Minnesota and one of the largest generation and transmission (G&T) cooperatives in the United States. Great River Energy’s member cooperatives range from those in the outer-ring suburbs of the Twin Cities to the Arrowhead region of Minnesota to the farmland of southwestern Minnesota. Great River Energy’s largest distribution cooperative serves more than 120,000 member-consumers; the smallest serves about 2,400.
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Contact:Lori Buffington
763-445-5714 (1-888-521-0130, ext. 5714)
