When Smurfit-Stone closed its Frenchtown mill, an opportunity was created for F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber in Columbia Falls.

The opportunity is to create a co-generation plant fueled by biomass, according to a panel of speakers at Flathead Valley Community College last week. The event was the fourth in a series of programs in the Re-Powering the Flathead Community Dialogue Series.

Chuck Roady, vice president of Stoltze, said his company has a passion for creating a co-generation plant at its sawmill.

"We have an outlet for the excess biomass, which we definitely have with the closure of Smurfit-Stone," Roady said.

Stoltze's plan is to create a co-generation plant fueled by woody biomass, the leftover woodchips from logging or sawdust from mills. For years these items have been hauled to and used by Smurfit-Stone.

Without a place to take the woody biomass, most of it will likely be burned or left to decompose.

Using the biomass and managing the forest's health by removing the waste products would be better, he said.

"There's obviously no shortage of biomass in Montana," Roady said. "There's more than an adequate amount for co-generation. It helps generate power, but also helps manage our forests."

A co-generation plant would create the steam used to process the wood in the mill and generate electricity, which could be sold.

Stoltze performed a feasibility study of creating the plant and found there would be enough material within a 75-mile radius of Columbia Falls to provide fuel for a 15-megawatt co-generation plant.

Montana is better off than other states that have had a difficult time creating co-generation plants because of a lack of supporting industries, he said.

"We're fortunate in Montana that we have logging and trucking infrastructure," he said. "We can't afford to lose that infrastructure."

Stoltze still has some obstacles to overcome before it could construct a co-generation plant, a process that would take about two years.

One is selling the power created by the plant. Biomass energy costs about three times more than existing power sources in the Flathead.

The company would need a power agreement purchase before moving forward, but the overall investment is worth it, noted Roady.

"We have to think beyond today," Roady said. "We may have the luxury of (inexpensive) hydropower today, but we'll eventually reach the need for more energy in the state and country."

Roady said Stoltze has talked with Flathead Electric Co-op about an agreement, but FEC said the power created from the co-generation plant would be "too expensive."

Bill Carlson, a biomass consultant, and Angela Farr, manager of the Montana Department of Natural Resource and Conservation's biomass utilization program, agreed that a biomass co-generation plant would be feasible in the Flathead.

They both pointed out that creating a biomass co-generation plant isn't without challenges.

Carlson said a co-generation plant would likely need to sell its electricity to a local power supplier, because Bonneville Power Administration's lines in Montana are full.

"The difficulty is the transmission situation," he said. "BPA lines are fully loaded with hydro and coal power. You can't depend on getting it out of here."

At the same time, locating a plant near the source of biomass is also important to control transportation costs.

Roady estimates the cost of woody biomass at $18.50 per green ton for the biomass on-site at the sawmill, while transporting biomass to the mill specifically for co-generation costs $64 per green ton.

The investment is worth it, according to Carlson, to make use of biomass as a renewable resource. Including using the wood waste and offsetting the use of fossil fuels.

"If the entire world were powered by biomass, would we have a build up of carbon gas?" he said. "The answer is no."