News for the ‘Biomass’ Category
Our goal is to raise $100,000 from individuals and businesses by the end of 2011. We are well on our way – but we need your help to get us over the top.
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With our networks of partners across the region, ANCA has identified four project areas to help transform our region and localize our economies:
- Food: Uniting the emerging local food economy through mapping the key players and identifying gaps in the system
- Energy: Expanding the region’s capacity to meet its own energy needs by bringing thermal biomass resources and programs to pilot communities
- Work: Creating a dynamic support network for entrepreneurs
- Identity: Launching an Adirondack Branding Initiative
Read about our work in the region and our goals for the upcoming year in the newsletter here
We invite you to join us as we begin this exciting work throughout the region.
David Dungate of ACT Bioenergy (right, facing camera), gave a tour of The Wild Center’s system, the first commercial scale pellet boiler in New York State, during the April 19 Biomass Basics workshop. Dungate designed the boiler, which saved $31,652 in its first year.
On April 19, 2011, more than 40 community and school leaders from around the region met with renewable heating and biomass experts, manufacturers, and related professionals for a Biomass Basics workshop at the Wild Center.
Organized by The Adirondack North Country Association, the Biomass Energy Research Center (BERC), the Northern Forest Center in conjunction with The Wild Center and NYSERDA, the agenda focused on how to help schools, municipalities and other institutions get started with plans to transition to woody biomass-based heating/power systems.
Many schools and communities have already begun the process and are close to installing highly efficient wood boilers, which are expected to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in upcoming heating seasons.
Beside the savings, some of the benefits of transitioning to a biomass-based system brought up in the workshop are the implications for boosting the region’s economy.
As David Dungate, founder of ACT Bioenergy and a director on the NY Biomass Energy Alliance stated at the meeting, when oil is used as the source of heating, over 75 percent of dollars spent leave the State, and the country. When using locally harvested fibers processed into wood chips or pellets, delivered by local companies, jobs are created in our communities.
Dungate’s organization estimates that if 25 percent of oil users in New York State switch to biomass systems, there is the potential to create 3,000 direct jobs to support the new industry.
A study of a community in Austria that converted to a district heating system found that when the residents used oil and gas for heat, there were nine jobs in the community connected to supplying and servicing furnaces. Following the conversion, that number grew to 135, according to information provided by BERC.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)will invest $20 million in combined heat and power generation projects to improve energy efficiency at 19 hospitals, paper mills, supermarkets, apartment complexes and other facilities in New York City and upstate.
Funding for the projects will leverage an additional $68 million in private investment toward the cost of buying and installing the technology, which generates on-site electricity while also making use of the heat created during generation.
Combined heat and power (CHP) is considered a clean-energy technology, and is also known as “cogeneration.” In a conventional system, when power is generated by burning a fuel, the heat created usually goes up the chimney or smokestack, wasted. CHP instead reclaims the heat, using it to provide heat or hot water to buildings, for manufacturing or other uses. Since power from CHP is generated on-site, there is no transmission loss as there is when electricity is moved over power lines.
The NYSERDA incentive pays between 30 to 50 percent of the cost of a CHP project, up to $2 million. The selected projects represent more than 22,000 kilowatts (kW) of new generation capacity. All projects will be capable of operating during a power outage.
The largest CHP projects include a hotel on NYC’s Madison Avenue and two North Country paper mills that will use wood chips to generate electricity.
UPSTATE PROJECT DETAILS:
(All projects are natural gas powered unless noted.)
• Utica: ConMed Corp., a manufacturer of medical and surgical equipment – 2,310 kW, $7.5 million. NYSERDA funding: $2 million.
• Syracuse: SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry - 195 kW gas-fired engine; 275 kW biomass turbine. $2.4 million. NYSERDA funding: $963,000.
• Potsdam Specialty Paper – 960 kW (biomass), $13.7 million. NYSERDA funding: $2 million
• Newton Falls Fine Paper – 13,600 kW (biomass), $23.7 million. NYSERDA funding: $2 million.
• Dunkirk Housing Authority – 49 kW, $796,000. NYSERDA funding: $316,000.
The $2 million biomass facility at Edwards-Knox Central School District in St. Lawrence County marked its one year anniversary Feb. 2.
Now that the boiler has been operating for a full year, annual savings are estimated at $135,000 to $140,000, Albert “John” Daniels Jr., the district’s superintendent of buildings and grounds, told the Watertown Daily-Times.
Edwards Knox is one of the first school districts in the region to operate a biomass facility. The project was fully paid for by state aid money and state Expanding our Children’s Education and Learning aid awarded to the district four years ago. School officials from several other area districts have toured the operation to help determine if they want to pursue a similar endeavor.
If Edwards-Knox still relied on fuel oil to heat its building complex, Daniels said, about $200,000 would have been budgeted for energy expenses this school year. That compares with $35,000 the district has in this year’s budget to purchase 700 tons of wood chips. He also said that unlike fuel oil, spending for wood chips supports the local economy because the chips are produced and purchased from Curran Renewables in Massena.
On a subzero degree day, 10 tons of wood chips costing about $500 are used to heat the school, which equates to 650 gallons of fuel oil,at an estimated cost of $1,650, Daniels said.
The story can be found here: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20110130/NEWS05/301309941
Heating Oil Sales by Region, 2008
The national news about fuel prices and their impact on the economy presents challenges for the region.
With the Northeast heavily dependent on heating oil (see chart), this instability in energy costs will be felt around the region, especially in rural areas where heating oil is the primary source for heat.
The rise in prices will not impact all people equally. It is likely to hit harder for people with limited income, and where the housing stock is older and less energy efficient.
When prices go up, households have to figure out what to cut back on to make up the difference.
Take for example, Franklin County, where in 2000, 71 percent of housing units use heating oil or kerosene (Source: New York State energy profiles, NYSERDA)
New York residents saw an increase of 69 percent in the cost of #2 heating oil from April 2009 to today’s prices. A household using 1,000 gallons of fuel a year would have to find an additional $1,610 just to stay even, a sizable amount when average annual household income in Franklin County is $44,374.
For that same household, converting to a wood-based system could bring significant savings.
The opportunity from pellet furnaces is a way to start reducing our oil dependence.
Steve Erman, president of Adirondack North Country Association and Kate Fish, the organization’s Executive Director, will present an overview of ANCA’s involvement in Northern Forest initiatives at a meeting October 25 hosted by the Tug Hill Commission.
The Tug Hill Commission has organized a series of conversations to coincide with a visit from Sandford “Sandy” Blitz, Federal Co-chair of the Northern Border Regional Commission. Blitz will talk about the formation of the commission and the economic development work it is undertaking in the Northern Border states of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.