Progress Energy Florida has signed a 25-year contract with Biomass Investment Group to purchase electric energy generated by a crop-fueled power plant to be built near Lake Okeechobee.
Gulf Breeze-based Biomass will start construction early next year on the 120-megawatt plant, its first. The plant, expected to be completed in 2008, will serve about 83,000 homes.
According to Progress, the environmentally friendly plant will consume more carbon dioxide than it emits and will be the first commercial-scale, biomass power plant using crops grown on site.
The plant will be fueled with Biomass' trademarked E-grass, a fast-growing, bamboo- like woody grass.