Significant potential exists for the public wastewater resource recovery sector development to help achieve state and federal goals to meet electricity and low carbon fuel needs with renewable sources. Across the San Francisco Bay Area, agencies have implemented programs to capture methane gas through anaerobic digestion. However, the biosolids still retain energy content after digestion.  The goals of the Bay Area Biosolids to Energy project include: 

• Meet increasing local energy needs by turning low-value biosolids into high-value energy products 
  
• Create a long-term, reliable renewable energy project benefiting society and the environment
  
• Meet or exceed all environmental regulations and reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHG) in accordance with AB32
  
• Maintain momentum in developing new B2E projects, including support for identifying and securing funding; and in seeking / developing partnerships
  
• Continue to look for replicable solutions outside of the region
  
• Continue to serve as a technology clearinghouse
  
• Create or identify economic drivers to allow new vendors/projects to enter the marketplace (includes leveraging Coalition members and sites)
  
• Identify new and niche markets for biosolids products in the Bay Area
  
• Continue to develop unified messages on biosolids management
  
• Identify a methodology for assessing pollutant removal efficiencies and/or relative risk levels associated with different processing methods, as they are brought forward to the Coalition.  One concept for addressing this goal is to identify academic partners who could assist in this task (i.e. through an RFI process). 
  
• Create new green jobs and support direct and indirect jobs from facility construction to operation
  
• Local, renewable energy close to energy demand with available sustainable supplies (biosolids, and potentially lawn clippings, leaves, and wood waste)
  
• Leverage State and Federal funds: a match of 50% of the capital funding is integral to helping the industry make the shift to become more energy self-reliant.
  
• Open to Public-Private Partnerships
  
• Partner with academia to advance biosolids research
  
• This comprehensive, regional approach to develop a biosolids to energy project is the first in the nation and will be a model for major metropolitan areas across the United States