Minutes 03/27/1990 - Laserfiche WebLink

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E.3.2 INDUSTRY TRENDS As reported by Governmental Advisory Associates, Inc., trends in the industry are as follows: The sample of resource recovery facilities (as examined) has expanded over 35 percent since 1986, indicating continued growth in the industry. Over 100 plants are now operational in the United States. An additional 181 installations are scheduled to come on- line during the next five years. By region, the Northeast has the greatest proportional share of facilities although the Southern and North Central states now contain greater numbers of plants. Relatively few projects are currently being planned in the West. The relative proportion of the various types of technologies has gradually shifted toward larger mass burning and away from the modular and RDF processes. The average design capacity of a United States waste- to-energy facility has decreased by 7.2 percent since 1986 which suggests a possible market saturation for large-scale plants. The movement in energy production is toward electric power generation and away from relatively riskier steam production, although the latter is still considered a viable option in those areas of the United States where electricity rates are low and steam customers exist. A total of 1252 megawatts of electric power (gross) is generated by existing waste-to-energy plants. An additional 3805 megawatts will be available if all planned projects are built. Materials reclamation will continue to be employed in future installations. Air pollution control (APC) equipment has become more sophisticated across all technologies and sizes of facility with the majority of future projects utilizing baghouse/scrubber systems. Unforeseen plant outages continue to occur and should be taken into account with respect to contingency planning. 9