Idaho is building steam towards emerging forms of alternative energy with recent moves by a beet processor into investigating a cogeneration facility and a waste company's use of compressed natural gas to run its fleet.
Amalgamated Sugar Co., Idaho's Office of Energy Resources and Idaho Power plan to jointly study the feasibility of a facility that would generate both steam for sugar beet processing and electricity for Idaho Power, reports the Idaho Press-Tribune.
The amount of energy needed to create steam for Amalgamated's sugar beet processing plant also could support a 100-megawatt cogeneration facility. Officials believe that's enough to electricity to power upwards of 60,000 homes.
Building the facility could improve energy use efficiency at Amalgamated by 45 percent, while also displacing the need for coal-fired electricity generation in the state, according to the article.
Meanwhile, Allied Waste Services of Boise is adding the state's first compressed natural gas fueling station, which will fuel the company's fleet of trash and recycling collection vehicles, according to a press release.
The company has 12 CNG-powered trucks in service now, and will replace another 28 diesel-powered trucks with CNG.
The fueling site will double as a public fueling station, as part of the federal push to add CNG fueling stations nationwide.
