Renewable energy is growing in beautiful groves on hundreds of acres near Lake Anna in Bumpass, Virginia, tended carefully by WoodFuels Virginia, the state's newest and largest chip production and wood pellet manufacturing facility.

Boiled down to its core, renewable energy is energy that comes from natural resources that are renewable, or naturally replenished.

Unlike traditional energy resources such as coal, petroleum and natural gas, renewable energy presents the opportunity to shift the power paradigm from seeking out and tapping finite, use-them-until-they're-gone resources to one where resources are cultivated and harvested in a balanced, well-managed cycle.

Currently, renewable energy accounts for only about 8% of the energy in the United States' supply. Given the ongoing and ever-evolving discussion about power production and consumption across the country, however, and the growing realization that smarter energy resources must be quickly brought online for reasons ranging from environmental to those involving national security, that percentage must and will only increase.

Ask people about renewable, or "green", energy and many will likely mention what they think are the most traditional or popular forms: hydroelectric, wind, solar, or even geothermal. Ironically, those four methods of renewable energy production, combined, account for only 50% of the renewable energy produced in the United States. These numbers from 2009 are the most recent figures available from the United States Energy Information Administration.

So what, all by itself, accounts the other 50%?

Biomass.

And what is biomass?

Biomass, as any renewable energy source, uses naturally replenished resources to produce energy. In particular, industrial biomass utilizes plants to produce fuel that in turn is used to provide an alternative thermal energy resource. So instead of burning up resources that can't be replaced and that release environmental pollutants trapped underground for millions of years, biomass presents the opportunity to use replaceable stocks of fuel to heat homes, produce electricity and fire power plants.

WoodFuels Virginia produces wood pellets at the new manufacturing facility.

That's right, wood pellets, aka, biomass, and they're not just for firing up your fireplace or woodstove anymore.

The WoodFuels Virginia plant in Bumpass represents a partnership in the growing renewable energy sector between Ensign-Bickford Renewable Energy of Great Britain and International WoodFuels, a U.S. company headquartered in southern California.

"Our mission at WoodFuels is to provide utilities with a clean, predictable and convenient replacement to coal," said Steve Meuller, International WoodFuels' founder and president. "The goal is renewable thermal energy."

"We acquired the original [Bumpass] sawmill in 2009. The original owner had installed a chip mill in 2004. The community was comfortable with the nature of the work, the transportation infrastructure was in place. We made significant investments to retrofit the facilities with new, top-of-the-line equipment, and were pleased to reopen last year. We're producing 200,000 tons of product a year now."

That product Mr. Meuller mentioned is wood pellets, small, dense pellets that look an awful lot like guinea pig food. But instead of feeding rodents, these pellets hold the potential to feed the world's need for energy.

WoodFuels has been working in New England for several years, providing heating energy to universities, hospitals, schools and commercial and industrial properties. Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire turned to WoodFuels to reduce their dependence on traditional, non-renewable energy sources. After installation of wood pellet boilers to service its activity center and three of its dormitories, the University reduced its annual consumption of liquid propane by 106,000 gallons and of heating oil by 48,000 gallons.

Along those lines, the WoodFuels Virginia facility is working with several local universities to provide pellets that will co-fire their existing coal-fired plants.

"Today, right now, these wood-pellets provide a straight-forward opportunity to reduce coal consumption through co-firing," explains Meuller.

Co-firing literally entails mixing the wood pellets in with coal at traditional coal-fired power plants.

Co-firing with wood-pellets produced currently allows power plants the potential to replace approximately 20% of the coal they use with a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, upwards of 80%.

The drawbacks to wood pellets as a fuel source? Scale.

Currently, scale is the primary hurdle. Competing with existing, entrenched power industries is no small challenge. Economics in the U.S. must also be overcome to build an alternative energy source from the ground up, although subsidies in Europe have allowed the biomass market there the opportunity to get on its feet.

With current demand of over 3 million tons a year for these types of biomass products, and new concerns about nuclear power brought on by the recent tragedies in Japan, Europe will likely drive the market for several years so the export market is booming.

Using lessons learned at its Bumpass plant, WoodFuels hopes to open three additional plants in the U.S. in the future as well as explore opportunities to expand internationally. Another enticing opportunity?

"We're committed to building the first torrefied pellet plant in the U.S.," said Meuller.

Torrefied pellets are the next generation of wood pellets, promising the opportunity to replace coal entirely at coal-fired plants. They burn like coal, they store like coal and they grind like coal.

Really the only differences between coal and torrefied wood pellets are a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when you burn it of upwards of 95%, and the ability to replenish whatever growth stock you use.

The trees that are used to produce the pellets come from dedicated open and closed loop tree farms where stock is harvested in rotating cycles to ensure a ready and continuously renewing supply.

There is lots of talk about clean coal.

But if you've been waiting for truly renewable energy, it's rapidly becoming a reality.

WoodFuels Virginia is growing and harvesting it just down the road.