U.S.D.A. certifies L'Anse electric plant as biomass facility.

L'ANSE -- The U.P. is on the cutting edge of creating renewable energy and providing greater profits to their suppliers.  They're doing it through a new federal program that's aimed at helping develop the new biomass industry.

Wednesday morning, the state director of the Farm Service Agency, a branch of the U.S.D.A., certified L'Anse Warden Electric Company as the first plant in Michigan to be part of the Federal Biomass Crop Assistance Program.  There are only a handful in the country.

Warden Electric uses 400 tons of woody biomass a day to produce 20 megawatts of electricity.

The new program pays suppliers an additional 50 percent over what the receiving company paid, for collecting, harvesting, transporting and storing biomass.

'Right now we work with one aggregator," said Traxys Vice President, Mike Reid.  "But it's going to open up the opportunities for other loggers to either work with that aggregator or get into the business."

Once a supplier drops the biomass at the L'Anse facility, they'll head to the U.S.D.A. pay office in Baraga to get their fifty cents to the dollar they were paid by Warden Electric.

"They're going to provide us with a couple of things," said Michigan's Executive Director of the Farm Service Agency, Christine White.  "One is that they have a forest stewardship plan on the land they plan to clear.  They have to provide us with a letter from the approved facility."

Traxys, which owns Warden Electric, is also looking at creating their own supply of woody biomass through a willow shrub.  That should increase their biomass output from 20 to 30 megawatts per day.

"It grows for three years, and then it's harvested," said AA Willow's, Dennis Rak.  'It yields 25 to 30 tons per acre at each harvest.  Once you harvest it, it separates and then you harvest it on a three year rotation."

That will help keep the U.P. in the forefront of creating green jobs and renewable energy.