A former coal plant in Ontario, Canada will soon be the biggest 100% biomass power plant in North America. The Atikokan Generating Station will output 200 MW and use wood pellets for fuel.
The new system is entirely automated, all run from the control center; trucks unload themselves, undesirable material is automatically sorted, with rejection capabilities at the silo, even if the pellets are deemed too warm. Trucks will take 15 minutes to unload: 10 trucks a day, 35 tonnes per truck, five days a week, totaling 90,000 tonnes/year.
The wood pellets come from forest product companies.