What is Desert View Power?

Desert View Power (DVP) is a net 45-megawatt woody biomass electrical generation facility located approximately 40 miles east of Palm Springs in Riverside County California and is located on the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians Native American Reservation.

The plant has been consistently providing renewable energy to Southern California since 1992. Each year DVP consumes between 360,000 and 390,000 tons of woody biomass diverted from regional landfills or open burning. DVP converts that material into electricity, providing more than 325,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) annually, or enough to power more than 49,000 homes for a year.

Greenleaf Power acquired DVP in 2011 and employs more than 30 full time staff (salary and hourly), plus more than 100 contractors during the spring and fall outage seasons. 26 of DVP’s employees are hourly, earning on average in excess of $28.00/hour with full benefits and overtime pay. DVP creates other jobs in the community, including full-time jobs related to the recovery and delivery of biomass. Estimates indicate that biomass power plants generate 10 times as many jobs as a comparably sized conventional natural gas power plant.

Six different local counties are currently sending their municipal tree-trimmings and other woody waste to DVP for processing. In addition to this support, Desert View Power pays local, state and federal governments and organizations including the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, totaling more than $17 million annually in local economic impact.

What does Desert View Power do?

Greenleaf Power’s Desert View Power cogeneration plant is California’s largest biomass-fueled generation facility. In generating its “green” electricity through biomass fuel consumption, Desert View Power plant is not making a net contribution to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and thus it is part of California’s sustainable future.

The Desert View Power facility uses about 360,000 bone dry tons of biomass per year. With that biofuel diverted away from landfills, this process also preserves more space for future waste needs and thus extending the overall life of area landfills. Instead, biomass facilities such as DVP convert waste materials left over from wood use such as construction, trimmings and more into power through a system that generates high-pressure steam, which then turns a turbine-generator that converts the energy into power.

Biomass facilities optimize the post-production process by burning organic matter at a concentrated heat, converting what would otherwise be waste into reusable energy, all with minimal invasiveness or particulate emissions. Plants like DVP are one of the cleanest and most reliable ways to convert biomass excess materials into energy. It is also one of the most environmentally beneficial – biomass energy plants have a net negative emission of greenhouse gases. DVP’s diversion and disposal of woody organic biomass is in alignment with the goals and objectives set forth in California’s SB1383 to drastically reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants.

Technical Details

DVP utilizes two combustion engineering circulating fluidized bed boilers and one steam turbine generator set to generate between 350,000 and 375,000 MWs annually, which is used to power the local area. The plant boilers are equipped with multi-clones and baghouse to create particulate control, ammonia injection for NOx control, limestone injection for sulfur dioxide control and hydrated lime for HCl and sulfur dioxide control. DVP operates under a Title V Permit and is compliant with all Federal, State, and Regional regulations. The plant is also a qualified in-state base load renewable resource (CEC# 60692A) that has been consistently providing renewable energy since the early 1990s.

This facility is also a “base load resource” which means that it does not rely on the wind to blow or the sun to shine in order to produce power; the plant continually produces 45 megawatts per hour using biomass fuel. Being a base load resource, DVP provides stability to the electrical grid in Southern California and is able to assist in meeting high demand periods, like hot summers and high air conditioning use.

Questions?

If you have biomass to sell, please contact our team at (760) 272-4959 for specifications and pricing.