Power producer Drax is scouting locations in the American pine belt to build electricity generators fueled by burning wood chips. The plan calls for constructing wood-fired power plants in parts of the U.S. South where pulp and paper mills have closed and left timber growers without buyers for those trees unfit for making lumber or poles.
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The plants’ exhaust will be piped underground instead of out of smokestacks, which generates lucrative carbon credits for which Drax is already lining up buyers. Plus, there’s the electricity. Technology companies are so eager to run their power-hungry AI data centers without fossil fuels that they’re trying to restart nuclear facilities.
