(The Carolina Poultry Power facility in Farmville, N.C., generates 2 megawatts (MW) of power and 75,000 tons of steam per hour – using more than 230 tons of turkey waste a day. Duke Energy and other utilities are purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs) from the $32 million biomass facility. Credit: Duke Energy)[/caption]
Duke Energy and a consortium of other utilities are securing poultry waste renewable energy certificates (RECs) from a $32 million Pitt County facility that started operating recently.
The Carolina Poultry Power facility in Farmville generates 2 megawatts (MW) of power and 75,000 tons of steam per hour – using more than 230 tons of turkey waste a day. Carolina Poultry Power is 100% owned and operated by the Power Resource Group.
The project will help Duke Energy satisfy state poultry waste-to-energy mandates under the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard ("REPS") law in North Carolina. In 2018, 300,000 megawatt-hours of the total electric power sold to retail electric customers in North Carolina was supplied by poultry waste.
The utilities buy the RECs generated by the facility when it produces 1 MWh of electricity. The RECs help the utilities meet the REPS requirements.
The facility, which is connected to the energy grid by Pitt and Greene Electric Membership Corporation, collects poultry litter from dozens of nearby farms. It is dried to create a boiler fuel, which then creates steam and electricity.
The financing for the facility was provided by First National Bank of Pittsburgh and a consortium of private investors.
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