What is biomass?
Biomass is the tops and branches of trees harvested for other purposes such as lumber, veneer, plywood and paper and pellets. It also may include some dead, diseased, broken, crooked trees or undesirable species which do not have a higher or better use. This material is chipped and used for fuel.
How can biomass support Vermont’s energy needs?
With Vermont’s current energy contracts expiring and the uncertain future operation of VT Yankee, the state is in need of new, clean energy sources. The state has also set goals to increase its renewable energy portfolio with in-state sources of clean energy. Biomass is a perfect fit for this need, and has the added benefit of being a base-load power source, providing power that is available more than 90% of the time, unlike other forms of renewable energy. Biomass is a good complement to solar, wind and other renewables.
Is biomass a form of renewable energy?
Yes. We have been using biomass in VT as a major agricultural crop since the early settlers. Proper harvesting techniques required by law and the practices utilized by forestry professionals insure that our forestlands continue to produce and regenerate – making biomass a valuable part of our renewable energy portfolio. Within a 50 mile radius of Fair Haven current growth exceeds harvesting by 1.3 million tons/year. Of the harvesting being conducted within this same radius there is an estimated 350,000 tons of waste wood of which BWE would expect to utilize a large percentage. The existing waste and growth far exceeds the need by 500,000 tons/year for both the power plant and pellet manufacturing facility.
Where is Beaver Wood Energy proposing to build its Vermont energy facility?
Beaver Wood proposes to build a facility in Fair Haven, Vermont.
How many jobs will be created the Fair Haven facility?
The facility will need approximately 50 employees. The two-year construction process will also generate hundreds of quality construction jobs. Based on early estimates prepared by Vermont’s Economic and Policy Resources Inc., the facility will also create an estimated 250 jobs in the forest products industry.
What types of job opportunities will be available?
There will be many challenging and rewarding positions created including Plant Manager, Plant Engineer, Plant Electrician, Maintenance Supervisor, Environmental and Safety Supervisor, Fuel Yard Supervisor, Control Room Operators, Plant Operators, Pellet Plant Operators, Fuel Yard Operators, Heavy Equipment Operators, Fork Lift Operators, Office Administrators, Quality Control Supervisor, Fuel Buyers, Pellet Sales and more.
Will you offer job training for applicants?
There are only a few positions for which some prior similar experience is helpful. We will start hiring several months before the facility is completed and the staff will undergo rigorous hands on training, watching the facility being constructed. They will be trained as each component is tested and operated. The extensive training program includes a never-ending environmental and safety training program as well as a quality control program. There will also be in-house training programs which prepare personnel for higher positions at the facility. There will also be an opportunity for facility personnel to take continuing education courses.
Will VEGI incentives be required to build the facility?
Beaver Wood Energy’s ability to go forward with the proposed biomass projects is contingent on BWE receiving necessary incentives available through State and local programs, including VEGI incentives.
How much power will the facility generate?
The facility will produce a total of 29 megawatts of clean power for Vermont.
Are there other biomass facilities in New England?
Biomass power production has a strong history in New England since the mid-1980s, with 12 plants in Maine, six in New Hampshire, and several in New York. Biomass also has a long and successful history in Vermont. The McNeil Station (50MW) has been operating in Burlington since 1984, and the Ryegate facility (22MW) has been operating in Ryegate since 1992.
Are there any other biomass facilities in the U.S. that also have wood pellet manufacturing operations?
Not that we are aware of. By combining biomass energy production with the manufacturing of wood pellets, the Beaver Wood facility features a unique design unmatched in the U.S. Designed to minimize waste and maximize output and efficiency, facility waste heat is utilized to manufacture wood pellets, a clean fuel source for heating homes, schools and businesses.
How many wood pellets will the facility produce annually?
220,000 tons of high quality wood pellets will be produced each year, to be used in residential and commercial energy applications. That’s approximately equivalent to removing 26 million gallons of #2 heating oil from the energy supply each year.
Where will the wood be harvested from?
Most of the wood will be harvested within a 50 mile radius of the facility.
Will Beaver Wood Energy harvest the wood for its facilities?
No. This work will be done by the forest professionals currently engaged in the business.
Will there be smoke or an odor produced at the facility site?
When you see wood smoke from a stove or campfire it is a result of poor combustion. Our facility have the most rigorous state of the art controls required by the State of Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation, including highly efficient particulate control devices that will result in negligible or no visible smoke. Any odor from a wood power facility is the smell of the woodpile which smells like a sawmill.
How loud will the facility be?
Beaver Wood Energy is designing the facility to minimize noise impacts on the surrounding community. The facility will meet the noise requirements of the Public Service Board and are being engineered to meet a maximum hourly sound pressure level of 50 dBA during the day and 45 dBA during the night at surrounding residences. This is below the existing daytime and nighttime average at each site.
We have already completed background sound monitoring around the Fair Haven site. Background sound level varies with location and proximity to existing noise sources. Around the site, average daytime sound pressure levels were between 53 and 60 dBA and the average nighttime levels were between 50 and 53 dBA.
You can compare these levels to common sound sources here.
We heat primarily with wood. We are concerned that reasonably priced logwood will be more and more difficult to attain, and that we will suffer the consequences, should we continue to choose to heat with wood and not convert to pellets.
Eric Kingsley of INRS has looked at this issue several times from several different angles including direct research by contacting fuel suppliers and harvesters as well as methods such as researching the advertised price of firewood within close proximity to a biomass power plant. Eric stated that the research has never indicated that prices for firewood any higher, nor that there is a shortage of supply as the result of a biomass power plant. Actually, if anything, there is a greater supply. This is because when a forester is now cutting your land, he and you can afford to cut the lower grade materials because there is a market for the waste (tops and limbs).
There has been a lot of discussion recently about the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences study of biomass and its relationship to global warming. Should we be concerned?
The Manomet study has been subject to misinterpretation and Manomet itself has issued several statements clarifying its results. Here is what we believe:
Fuel Supply:
The Manomet study was written specifically for Massachusetts and its forests. Vermont’s forests are very different from Massachusetts. Vermont has a long history of private woodlot management and care for its forests through its “current-use” management program and the personal ethics of its forest-owner citizens and the forest products community. In addition, Vermont has rigorous regulations that govern the harvesting of timber resources that are directed at ensuring sustainability and preserving habitat. We will be working with licensed foresters to ensure compliance with these regulations.
The Manomet study assumes that a large portion of the fuel supply for future wood fired plants will be from whole tree harvesting due to the limited amount of forest waste within the State of Massachusetts. Vermont has a much larger foresting industry and there is an abundance of forest waste for our projects. We will use limbs, tops and branches from the harvesting of trees with higher value uses (veneers, saw logs, pulp, etc.) as our primary fuel supply, along with some crooked, damaged and diseased trees.
Most of our wood fuel is a waste product, which would otherwise be clogging up landfills or forests and decomposing into carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in the process. One of the many benefits of the biomass plants in New England is they serve as a value-added recycler for the wood products industry by creating a market for the low grade residues which would otherwise release these greenhouse gases which are very harmful greenhouse gasses as discussed below.
We will employ a professional forester to ensure that wood is supplied on a sustainable basis, taking particular care to protect wildlife habitat and wetlands.
Carbon Footprint:
We believe, and we believe the study bears this out, that biomass for renewable, baseload power is carbon neutral and actually moves us in the right direction on climate change. If the forest resource is used sustainably and the biomass plant employs the latest technology and emissions controls, as is planned for the Beaver Wood Energy projects, biomass is a wise choice for the climate, for jobs and for the forest.
Our plants will be carbon neutral while adding permanent jobs to the economy and renewable baseload power to the system. Trees don’t permanently sequester CO2, they borrow it for relatively short periods of time. When a tree is growing it converts CO2 in the atmosphere into carbon. When the tree dies it decomposes primarily into CO2 and CH4 . If the wood is used for building houses or furniture for example there is a short delay in returning the carbon to the atmosphere, but again it is insignificant from a geological time perspective. If the wood goes to a landfill the carbon largely decomposes into CH4 and that has about 20 times the greenhouse gas impact as CO2.
BPA’s Comments on the DOER Biomass RPS Rule Making Process
The Biomass Power Association recently sent a letter to the Massachusetts Commissioner of the Department of Energy Resources with their comments on purposed changes to the Commonwealth’s Renewable Portfolio Standard. You can read the letter here.
Maine’s DEP Commissioner’s Comments on the DOER Biomass RPS Rule Making Process
The state of Maine’s DEP Commissioner recently sent a letter to the Massachusetts Commissioner of the Department of Energy Resources with their comments on purposed changes to the Commonwealth’s Renewable Portfolio Standard.
You can read the letter here.
INRS’s Comments on the media’s coverage of the Manomet study
Eric Kingsley of Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC wrote an article in Northern Logger magazine addressing his concerns about the media’s coverage of the study. You can read the article here.
How Manomet got it Backwards: Challenging the “debt-then-dividend” axiom
Dr. William Strauss, President of FutureMetrics explains how Manomet got it backwards. You can read the article here.