https://www.iisd.org/gsi/news/us-renewable-energy-tax-credit...
It seems that in order to get the credit, they have to add small amount of diesel? I'll look into that a bit later.
Thanks for sharing this interesting niche of the energy market.
Black Liquor is interesting. Just down the road from my old plant, there is an International Paper mill that has been relying on that loophole for years to keep themselves afloat. All the mill's internal machinery is either steam-driven or runs on the electricity produced by their on-site plant. Lately they've been over-producing power and selling it back on the grid due to these credits, to the point that they have kept paper machines running at paper prices that would otherwise be unsustainable, just to keep a steady supply of black liquor for their power plant.
Last time I talked to someone still working there, they were making enough per-megawatt on green energy credits that they can run full-bore even if the hourly price for electricity production is negative and make a profit. Not to mention that in the past year, there have been a handful of paper mill closings in the area, so the logging contractors have been scrambling to find anybody that will take their pulpwood production, at any price, and the state government has been mulling legislation to add further subsidies to make sure they take all the wood they can, to keep everyone else in the logging, trucking and other subsidiary industries open.