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Minnesota Power Arrowhead Regional Emission Abatement (AREA) Plan

The AREA Plan was proposed to regulators by Minnesota Power in October 2005. It called for MP to voluntarily take steps to reduce air emissions at the two of its generating stations closest to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Work began with 60-megawatt Unit 2 of the Laskin Energy Center in Hoyt Lakes. During October and November 2006, Foster-Wheeler low-nitrogen oxide (NOx) burners, over-fire air systems and software networks were installed that are expects to reduce NOx emissions by 66 percent.

The retrofits, when combined with Laskin’s existing wet particulate scrubbers’ sulfur dioxide removal capability, are designed to deliver a multi-emission approach to pollutant controls.

Construction costs at Laskin Unit 2 were approximately $3 million.

Installation of essentially the same equipment on Laskin Unit 1 was accomplished for about $2.2 million.

With completion of the Laskin retrofit, work began almost immediately on Taconite Harbor Energy Center’s Unit 2. The project was installation of technology based on a Swedish researcher’s findings that modifying the combustion process is the most effective and lowest-cost method of emissions control.

Minnesota Power contracted with MobotecUSA, a California firm, to custom-design a control system for Taconite Harbor Unit 2. Ductwork was installed to allow injections of various sorbents into the process at key points to control sulfur dioxide, NOx and mercury. Although Mobotec’s process is marketed as a means of controlling the oxides, at a power plant in Cape Fear, N.C., it also reduced mercury by 89 percent. Minnesota Power anticipates the system will cut NOx emissions by more than 60 percent and sulfur dioxide emissions by 65 percent.

Work is expected to be completed by this spring.

AREA Frequently Asked Questions

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Wind Power

On Dec. 28, 2006, the 50.6-megawatt Oliver Wind I Energy Center in North Dakota began generating electricity for Minnesota Power, which has a 25-year contract with FPL Energy, which built and owns the facility.

Oliver I comprises 22 turbines, each atop a 262-foot-tall tower. The components were manufactured in Denmark, shipped to the Port of Duluth and transported to the wind farm site near Center, N.D., by specialized trucks.

Just weeks later, Minnesota Power announced it had signed a second 25-year contract with FPL, this one to purchase all the output of a 40-megawatt facility to be built adjacent to Oliver Wind I. Named Oliver Wind II, the second facility is expected to be up and running by the end of 2007 if approved by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

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In November 2006, Minnesota Power filed with state agencies a plan to reduce air emissions from Unit 3 of the Boswell Energy Center near Grand Rapids, Minn.

Scheduled to be in service by year-end 2009, the Boswell 3 plan cost-effectively provides significant emission reductions through the use of integrated control technologies appropriate for the size, location and use of Boswell Unit 3. The plan relies heavily on mercury co-benefit reductions, meaning that measures to reduce other emissions will cut mercury even more than the chosen mercury reduction technology alone. Minnesota Power expects that it is possible to achieve up to 90 percent mercury removal, NOx emission reduction of more than 80 percent and SO2 and particulate matter emission reductions of more than 90 percent under the Boswell 3 plan.

Minnesota power hopes to receive permit approvals and begin work this spring, with completion slated for year-end 2009.

Boswell 3 Frequently Asked Questions

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