Arizona officials, industry leaders call for second biomass power plant

By Peter Aleshire
The Payson Roundup
October 28, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

ARIZONA — Restoring Arizona’s wildfire-threatened forests depends on building a second biomass-burning power plant, a coalition of public officials and timber industry executives said. The state’s only biomass-burning plant is operating at capacity, which means many forest thinning and restoration projects will stall without a second plant to process low-value wood slash and biomass, speakers said at the October meeting of the Natural Resources Working Group. “It’s a biomass apocalypse,” said Brad Worsley, head of Novo BioPower, the state’s only biomass-burning power plant. Eastern Arizona Counties Executive Director Pascal Berlioux said he was frustrated by the lack of state and federal action after years of discussion about how to make forest restoration economical. …Novo BioPower in Snowflake remains the state’s only biomass-burning power plant.  …Worsley said the plant survived shortages caused by delays in Forest Service approval of thinning projects and is now operating at its limit.

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