
66 MW
720 Laurel Street
Reading, PA
19602
United States of America
Latitude: 40.325579
Longitude: -75.922517
Approved for $39,226,475 Incentive Tax Credit under Section 1603 of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.
Power generated is used in the paper mill United Corrstack and the excess is sold to the regional transmission grid. (From
4/26/2011: "Pete [Roberts of Emerging Technologies Applications Center (ETAC) at Northampton Community College] spent several years helping Reading-based United Corrstack Inc. (UCI) evaluate the potential of CHP to power its paper recycling mill. UCI is now receiving all of its steam and power from Evergreen Community Power -- the newest company affiliate operating a state-of-the-art CHP facility fueled by biomass."
United Corrstack built and started in 1993. United Corrstack has been building a planned energy solution called Evergreen Community Power, an energy-efficient boiler and steam generator that is fueled from biomass materials like wood waste to provide steam and electricity to the manufacturing facility.
"When we started getting approvals for the boiler, we were nervous because we were planning to put this huge power plant in the middle of the city," says David Stauffer, vice president and general manager at UCI. "But our plans were very well-received."
Evergreen Community Power, a $135 million project, is the result of collaboration between UCI, BFTP and the Electrotechnology Applications Center (ETAC) at Northampton Community College.
Thanks to reduced emissions, the new plant will improve air quality. "For every megawatt of electricity we make, that electricity will be displacing a fossil fuel unit somewhere," Stauffer says. "When we fire up our 25 megawatts, 25 megawatts of coal fire goes down, which helps clean up the air."
11/16/2011 Case Study: "Despite the low cost of fuel and above average plant operating efficiency, the ECPP is a wholly unprofitable venture into clean energy. Without a few key changes in the biomass and refuse derived fuel marketplace, wholesale electricity markets, and the waste disposal industry, the ECPP will unfortunately remain unprofitable."