Increasing Use of Renewable Energy Sources
What GRU is doing
We are investing in renewable energy sources so we are prepared to meet our customers’ needs well into the future.
Solar Programs
We have offered solar water heating rebates since 1997 and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems rebates since 2007. Now we have created a solar feed-in-tariff (FIT) program to increase the number of solar PV systems in Gainesville.
Biomass-fueled Plant
In May 2009, the Gainesville City Commission approved a 30-year energy contract between GRU and Gainesville Renewable Energy Center, LLC (GREC). GREC will build, own and operate a 100-megawatt biomass power plant in Gainesville. GRU will purchase and own 100 percent of the energy produced. The plant will be fueled by forestry-waste material generated by north central Florida's principal agriculture industry – forestry for paper pulp, chip and saw timber – as well as urban wood waste.
By using biomass materials, a local renewable resource, this facility will promote our energy independence, add diversity to our fuel supply and shield customers from anticipated increasing fossil-fuel prices. This plant also will allow Gainesville to achieve its carbon-reduction goals, which are based on the Kyoto Protocol.
Landfill Gas
G2 Energy, LLC, began selling GRU electricity from its landfill-gas power plant in Marion County in January 2009. The three-megawatt plant currently generates about 2,000 megawatt hours of electricity per month from methane gas collected at the Marion County Baseline Landfill. Methane gas is naturally produced by decomposing organic matter. Instead of being burned wastefully, the greenhouse gas is being transformed into enough electricity to power more than 2,100 homes for a year.
In an earlier project, GRU partnered with Alachua County at the Southwest Landfill. That project ended in 2007 when all the useful gas was converted to electricity. G2 Energy recently purchased GRU’s generators from the Alachua County project and plans to have one of them up and running at the Marion County landfill by the end of the year, adding another megawatt to the plant’s capacity.
