Economic Impact
Bioenergy Wields A Variety of Positive Benefits
Bioenergy is generated locally with local forest or agricultural residue, making use of a natural resource that would be left to decay or sent to a landfill. This creates revenue streams for local loggers, mills and farms, creating economic benefit to local businesses and reducing a region’s reliance on imported fossil fuels.
ReEnergy directly employs about 100 people, but the economic impact of bioenergy extends far beyond direct employment
Of all renewable energy choices, bioenergy offers the greatest long-term employment and positive rural economic impact. For example, as a rule of thumb, each 1 megawatt (MW) of biomass power supports between three and seven full-time jobs; one job in the facility and the remainder in the community. Based on this calculation, ReEnergy’s energy facilities support more than 1,000 families.
In addition, ReEnergy’s payments of sales tax and property taxes – and payments in lieu of taxes, in some cases – contribute to a number of rural municipalities, making a significant difference in their ability to provide services to their citizens.
All told, the total economic impact of ReEnergy’s facilities exceeds $60 million in direct expenses, with millions more in indirect impact.
Supporting Forestry Industry Partners
ReEnergy is committed to supporting the forestry industry in and around its facilities, and operates an innovative program that assists loggers in acquiring state-of-the-art equipment while providing fuel to ReEnergy’s biomass-to-energy facilities. Through this program, ReEnergy purchases state-of-the-art wood chippers and negotiates contracts with loggers who wish to procure a chipper and supply fuel to ReEnergy facilities. The loggers pay for the chippers during the course of the contract while supplying fuel, and ownership of the chipper transfers to the logger at the end of the agreement.