WBjune21pgs_SS.qxp_Wood Bioenergy Magazine 5/14/21 9:58 AM Page 22
Florida Logger Finds Success
Supplying Power Plant By Patrick Dunning WILLISTON, Fla. hat began as a swamp and hill operation in 1971 hand-felling pulpwood in Williston, Fla., has diversified into a substantial chipping-for-biomass operation in recent years for William “Bill” Harrison, 69, and his company Harrison Logging Co. What brought the change? A variety of factors, but the biggest being the opening of a new market near Harrison’s home in Florida, a municipal electric utility burning wood chips for power, now operating under the name Deerhaven Renewable Generating Station. First brought online in late 2013 as Gainesville Renewable Energy Center (GREC), the 102.5 MW facility burns biomass chips sourced from the region Harrison cuts, so it was a natural fit. Harrison has crews that contract cut for Columbia Timber Co., and have since the 1980s. Columbia had the first contract to provide wood for the Gainesville plant, and
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“I wish there were chip mills everywhere. It would change the way people look at loggers.” through that contract, Harrison was introduced to chipping-for-biomass. The logging company operated a Bandit chipper that Columbia purchased for a while, before stepping out on their own and purchasing a Bandit chipper. In the beginning, the logging crew used the Columbia purchased Bandit 2590, but it quickly became evident that the market demanded a heavier-duty machine, and an increase in production. Now, Harrison operates three Bandit chippers, one 3590XL for M. A. Rigoni and two 3590s for Columbia Timber Co. producing a total of 250 loads of chips a week. “The 3590 Bandit chipper helps us diversify our market and the landowners love it. Their land is clean when we leave,” Harrison explains of the machine and its re-
Wood Bioenergy / June 2021
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