Cleaves says some other biomass contractors have seen their projects fail because they bid into requests for proposals with an energy price so low that projects would be unprofitable and unable to get financing.

So far, with about 400 workers on site, Fagen's crews have been clearing, grading, constructing the storm water basin and performing other underground work. This year the contractor will focus on building the warehouse, cooling tower and wood-handling systems, says Josh Levine, director of project development for American Renewables.

The construction of a 100-MW biomass plant is significantly similar to the construction of a 100-MW coal plant, Fagen says. "It's not as different as people would think." He says one of the major differences is making sure that the wood being stored on site is kept damp to prevent fires.

For the Gainesville project, Metso Corp. will supply a boiler island with bubbling fluidized bed technology. Steam from the boiler will power a Siemens turbine that will generate electricity, just as steam from a coal boiler powers a turbine in a coal plant.

About 1 million tons of urban wood residue and forest waste will fuel the plant each year. The Gainesville utility took extra steps to make sure its wood supply would be sustainable, using wood waste from clearing home sites and rights of way and from thinning forests. The company also will pay a premium to landowners who replant trees that are harvested.

All of the wood will come from a 75-mile radius around Gainesville. "It's a unique program that I have not seen incorporated elsewhere," Levine says of the local utility's hands-on approach to wood gathering.

Despite the project's relative success, the project's players continue to face some rough patches. Local opposition, largely led by local Tea Party activists, has been persistent in its objections to the price of the biomass power—which will cost the average residential user an additional $10.56 per month, more than for electricity from a comparable natural gas plant. Last month, the Alachua County Commission unanimously voted to investigate the possibility of buying its power from some place other than the Gainesville utility.

Levine says the backlash is from a vocal minority and that there is no legal manner in which the utility could terminate its power-purchase agreement with American Renewables.

More problematic, however, could be updated maximum achievable control technology (MACT) rules issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at the end of 2010 that forced American Renewables to redesign and double the size of the plant baghouse—which functions as a filter—to capture more and smaller particulates that are emitted. The midstream fix added $10 million to the cost of the plant.