Developing Biomass Heating in New England

Regional Biomass Action Plans World Sustainable Energy Days 2009 Wels, Austria 25 February 2009

Tim Maker, Senior Program Director Biomass Energy Resource Center Montpelier, Vermont U.S.A.

Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC) BERC is a U.S. national not-for-profit organization working to promote responsible use of biomass for energy. BERC’s mission is to achieve a healthier environment, strengthen local economies, and increase energy security across the United States by developing sustainable biomass systems at the community level.

Overview of presentation • History of community-scale wood heating development in New England • Why woodchip heating became popular in public schools • Wood heating in other community-scale settings • A regional biomass action plan example: The Northern Forest Biomass Energy Initiative

How New England Started Down the Path of Biomass Heating Since the late 1970s New England has been interested in alternatives to oil heat for larger buildings. Using forest biomass began in the mid-1980s with installing woodchip boilers in public schools in Vermont. Now, 30% of all public school students in Vermont attend wood-heated schools and the technology is spreading to institutional buildings in other parts of the U.S.

Why?

Forces that Drove the Development of Biomass Heating in Schools • Large regional schools in rural forest areas • Increasingly high oil heat bills for schools • Lots of forest land in Northern Forest states: Maine

89%

New Hampshire

85%

Vermont

78%

New York

62%

Typical Northern New England Scene

Typical Large Regional School

More Forces Driving Biomass Heating • Lots of small and medium size sawmills • Stationary chippers in mills, mobile chippers in woods • Lots of woodchips available at low cost • Big trucks delivering woodchips to pulp and paper mills (truck capacity: 75 m3 - holding 25,000 kg) • No bulk-delivery of wood pellets, high pellet price

Typical New England Sawmill

Typical Forest Harvest

Woodchip Truck on the Highway

Woodchip Delivery

First, Small Schools • Typical size:

300 students 5.000 m2

• Wood heating plant size:

500 KW

• Annual woodchip use:

12 truck loads 900 m3 275.000 kg

• Heating cost: with oil with chips

€35.000 €11.000

Later, Big Schools • Typical size:

900 students 15.000 m2

• Wood heating plant size:

1.3 MW

• Annual woodchip use:

32 truck loads 2.400 m3 750.000 KG

• Annual heating cost: with oil with chips

€90.000 €30.000

The Result: Lots of Schools with Woodchip Heating Systems

Community-Scale Wood Heating in Other Larger Settings • College and university campus systems • Hospitals • State office complexes • Other campus settings

Institutional Heating

Small Community Hospital Woodchip steam CHP system

Campus Woodchip Energy

Small Community College 2 MW woodchip heating plant

Campus Wood Energy

Larger College Campus System 3 MW central woodchip steam CHP plant

Campus Wood Energy

35.000 m3 Health Care Campus 2 woodchip boilers totaling 3.5 MW thermal

State Office Complex Woodchip District Heating Vermont State Capitol Complex 45.000 m3 heated space

Central Plant: 1 3 MW woodchip boiler 2 4 MW oil boilers

Woodchip and Wood Pellet Heating in Smaller Settings • State office buildings • Multi-family housing (apartments) • Environmental centers • Commercial buildings

Woodchip Heating for Public Buildings

State Office Building 600 KW woodchip heating plant

Pellet Heating for Institutional Buildings

Conservation Education Center 35 KW pellet heating plant

Commercial Pellet Heating

4.500 m3 Manufacturing Plant

75 KW pellet heating plant

Woodchip Community District Heating

Small-Scale Setting – 50 Units, Low-income Housing

650 KW woodchip heating plant

Small Community District Energy

25 Unit Co-housing Development 200 KW cordwood boiler system

Regional Biomass Action Plan Example: Northern Forest Biomass Energy Initiative Purpose: “To explore the potential for woody biomass from the Northern Forest to provide an increased source of renewable, sustainable energy for the region, and to determine what needs to happen in the region for that potential to be realized.”

The Northern Forest Resource New York, Vermont, New Hampshire & Maine

Northern Forest Biomass Energy Initiative

Challenge: Will the Northern Forest region become a world leader in the innovation, production, and sustainable use of biomass energy, biofuels, and bioproducts created from the local wood resource?

Available on BERC Website www.biomasscenter.org

Northern Forest BEI Action Plan

Vision and Principles • Sustainable Forestry — to keep the forest healthy and ensure that harvest management supports the overall ecological function and integrity of the forest ecosystem. • Maximized Efficiency — to ensure the energy value of biomass harvested for fuel is utilized as fully and cleanly as possible. • Local Energy — to use local wood resources for community and regional needs at the appropriate scale. • Energy Security — to provide communities and businesses with a stable, uninterrupted, affordable, clean energy supply using local resources. • Climate Change Mitigation — to reduce net carbon emissions and increase carbon sequestration in order to mitigate global warming.

Action Plan Endorsements: A Wide Diversity of Stakeholders • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Adirondack Council Adirondack North Country Association Adirondack Park Agency Allenby Associates, LLC American Forests Appalachian Mountain Club Biomass Energy Resource Center* Carsey Institute* Center for Rural Partnerships, Plymouth State University Clean Energy Group Crotched Mountain Foundation Forest Guild Katahdin Energy Works Lyme Timber MAGI C Maine Rural Partners Mount Washington Valley Economic Council National Wildlife Federation Natural Resources Council of Maine Natural Resources Defense Council Natural Resources of Canada, Community Energy Planning Group New Energy Capital New England Wood Pellet, LLC New York State Forester, Robert K. Davies North Country Resource Conservation and Development Area, New Hampshire

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Northern Forest Alliance Northern Forest Center* Public Service of New Hampshire R. J. Turner Company Rainforest Alliance Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry The Irland Group Threshold to Maine Resource Conservation and Development Council University of Maine, Center for Research on Sustainable Forests University of Maine Forest Bio Products Research Initiative Vermont Family Forests Vermont Land Trust Vermont Natural Resources Council Vermont Public Interest Research Group Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund Vermont Woodlands Association Wagner Forest Management Washington Electric Cooperative Yellow Wood Associates

Contact Information Timothy Maker Senior Program Director Biomass Energy Resource Center 43 State Street Montpelier, VT 05601 U.S.A. 802-223-7770 X 123

[email protected]

www.biomasscenter.org