An Xcel Energy plant in northwestern Wisconsin came back online recently after completing $18.7 million in air quality and boiler upgrades.
Xcel Energy’s Bay Front Power Plant in Ashland had been offline since September while workers finished equipment installations to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards.
Plant Manager David Fulweber said they’ve reduced particulate matter emissions by 70 percent and mercury emissions by 93 percent.
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“We have 90 days by our construction air permit that the DNR issued to us in order to do emissions testing, where we have a contract company test our emissions to verify that we meet all of the requirements,” said Fulweber.
The plant reduced particulate emissions from 0.04 pounds per million British thermal units to half that. The Bayfront Power plant uses roughly 250,000 tons of wood waste and about 3,000 tons of coal to generate electricity each year.
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