Batzer Construction has been selected as the general contractor to restart a dormant Biomass facility in Anderson, CA.   The facility burns plant debris from mills and from agriculture to provide steam heat for the adjacent mills to dry lumber as well as making electricity from steam powered turbines.   The renewable energy they will make is then sold back to the local utility company.

Originally built in 1987, the Biomass plant operated for over a decade.    As the timber economy  the plant owners consolidated and closed the Anderson plant, taking equipment and  parts with them to operate other facilities in N. California.

Fifteen years later, Kiara Solar bought the Biomass Plant and has decided to reopen it to produce 6 megawatts of power.  They hired Batzer Construction in May.

The plant is being reviewed from top to bottom.   Machinery is be re-tooled and replaced, and several structural changes are needed for accomodating newer equipment and systems.    Batzer Construction anticipates the Biomass plant will be going through it’s air quality control testing in October, which it must pass in order to re-open in November.

Batzer Construction has extensive experience with heavy industrial facilities and lumber mills.   Many of the mills have a Co-Gen or Biomass plant at them. The particular construction expertise needed at these facilities is exceptional skill with technical concrete mixtures and equipment bolting.  The machinery must be bolted securely to the facility structure and concrete base and the structure and concrete must be able to endure the vibrations from the machinery and environmental issues of the manufacturing process such as chemical exposure, cleaning and maintenance regimens, dust and soot.

The Batzer Construction team has been building and renovating industrial manufacturing and lumber mills for more than fifty years.  We have just recently completed rebuilding the Trinity River Lumber Mill in Weaverville, CA, and now our sitework and concrete team are on location in Anderson working on renovations at the Biomass facility.