Green energy striking out in Mississippi

By Steve Wilson | Mississippi Watchdog

With Major League Baseball’s opening day in full swing Monday, it’s easy to make a parallel with green energy projects in Mississippi, and the scorecard isn’t a pretty one.

Strike one — Twin Creeks Solar

• The state sued to recover $26 million from its investment in the Senatobia plant, designed to make thinner silicon wafers for solar panels. It failed after a few months of operation in 2012.

Strike two — KiOr

• KiOR owes the state $69.3 million from a no-interest loan to build a plant in Columbus designed to turn wood chips into gasoline and diesel fuel. The plant is now in an “idle state.”

  FROM TREES TO FUEL: KiOR’s Columbus, Mississippi plant is designed to turn biomass into gasoline and diesel fuel.

  Columbus Light and Water informed the plant’s management that it could no longer handle any more waste water from the facility because of potentially harmful material, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Strike three — Bluefire Renewables

• Bluefire Renewables’ plan to build a $300 million plant designed to convert cellulose into ethanol in Fulton. According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Department of Energy withdrew its $88 million grant for the facility. Construction was scheduled to begin in August, and it was scheduled to open in 2015. The plant was supposed to employ 70 to 80 people, which comes to more than $1 million per job if you’re keeping score at home. That’s not peanuts.