116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Marion waste-to-energy plant construction to start in spring
Dec. 1, 2010 11:49 am
The Marion City Council is expected to approve spending $95,000 for preliminary engineering for a $95 million solid waste-burning power plant proposed by a Florida firm.
Plasma Power LLC is looking for a five- to six-acre site in Marion for a power plant employing plasma arc technology to generate electricity by burning up to 200 tons of solid waste a day, according to City Manager Lon Pluckhahn.
Plans call for a spring 2011 construction start and the plant being online by 2013 or earlier.
Plasma Power has asked the city to contribute $95,000 toward preliminary engineering and to sponsor its application for disaster recovery bonds, Pluckhahn said. The plant could qualify for the bonds because the power plant would replace generating capacity lost when Alliant Energy's Sixth Street generating facility in Cedar Rapids was damaged by flooding in 2008.
The plant, which would be the single largest investment in Marion, would employ about two dozen people when it begins operation, Pluckhahn said.
A molten glass bath glows during a demonstration of the Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Agency's Plasma Enhanced Melter (PEM), which gasifies landfill waste and turns it into energy, on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009, at the composting site in southwest Cedar Rapids. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)
Daily Newsletters