Officials of the city and the company, many of whom gathered yesterday at the plant site at 2500 Jackson Pike for a groundbreaking ceremony, said the 10-year arrangement is a good deal.
"We're giving them a fair price," said Tom Kurtz, president of Kurtz Bros. of Central Ohio, a co-owner of quasar and a partner in the project.
The price is roughly equal to the city's cost to burn the sludge at its sewage-treatment plant's incinerators, said George Zonders, a city utilities spokesman.
Zonders said that by locking in the cost with quasar for at least 10 years, the city could save money in the long term.
The plant is expected to process about 40,000 tons of sludge, food scraps and restaurant grease each year to produce the gas to generate about 1 megawatt of electricity.
quasar will pay the Solid Waste Authority $15,000 a year to lease the site, which once was part of the city's trash-burning power plant.
Kurtz said the company hasn't decided how it will sell the electricity. There are a variety of agreements the company can make with power buyers.
Kurtz said quasar operates similar plants in Akron and Wooster. A third should be running in Zanesville in about a month, he said.
Some environmental advocates and South Side residents have objected to the project, saying they fear it will become a new source of foul odors. Company officials say the plant's digestion system is designed to contain all gases and odors.
The plant's draft permit allows for emissions of as much as 23.8 tons of sulfur dioxide and 20.8 tons of nitrogen oxide each year. Both pollutants contribute to smog and airborne soot.
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