It’s Not Easy Building Green Vermont Community Development Association Winter Meeting OVERVIEW OF WOOD-FIRED DISTRICT HEATING Vermont Technical College Randolph, Vermont March 18, 2008 Tim Maker, Senior Program Director Biomass Energy Resource Center

Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC) BERC is a 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.

Imagine your community’s downtown center. Imagine what it would be like to: Get off oil. To use a heating fuel that comes from your county. Keep all heating fuel dollars in the local economy. Become a renewably heated community. Know that building heat would be affordable no matter what happened in the world.

This presentation and the ones that follow are about realizing this vision. First, let’s look at the future of oil availability and oil cost.

Crude Oil Production in the US Peak Production in 1970

World Oil Production History & Forecast: One Scenario Peak in 2030 60 USGS Estimates of Ultimate Recovery 50 40 Billion Barrels per Year 30 20 History 10 Forecast 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000 2025 2050 2075 2100 Note: US volumes were added to the USGS foreign volumes to obtain world totals. Source: US DOE, Energy Information Administration

After the World Oil Peak – What Happens to Communities in Rural Areas? Very high, rapidly increasing oil and gas costs Competitive disadvantage Economic un-development Dependence on an unfriendly global economy

High oil prices and reduced oil availability will have a big impact on Vermont’s communities. Transportation Community planning Downtown development Vibrant, resilient, secure communities

Local Energy: A new paradigm for the relationship between communities and forests

What Are the Characteristics of Local Energy? Uses community-scale technology Replaces fossil fuels with local biomass*, for heat and power Uses efficient, clean technology Has strict requirement for sustainable fuels * In Vermont, biomass fuel means low-grade wood.

What Are the Benefits of Local Energy? Keeps local energy dollars circulating in the community Displaces expensive fossil fuels and increases security Scaled to link community energy economy with local resources Acts as a force for sustainable forestry Uses available fuel, woodchips or pellets, at high efficiency Uses manageable volumes of biomass for each project Supports forest-products industry and creates jobs

Comparative Cost of Heat - Various Fuels Unit Cost/unit Average Efficiency $/MMBtu Delivered Heating Oil gallons $3.00 80% $27.17 Propane $2.50 85% $31.97 Natural Gas MMBtu $12 $14.12 Woodchips tons $50 70% $7.09 Wood Pellets $220 $17.23 Why did we do this study? Current wood fuel users were getting worried. Compares individual building fossil fuel heating to biomass (wood) district heating

What Does Local Energy Look Like? School woodchip and pellet heating Other institutional heating Wood-fired campus energy systems Community district energy (using wood fuel) Small-scale power generation and CHP

Community District Heating Wood-fired central heating plant, with buried hot water piping to individual buildings

District Heat Infrastructure District heat pipes being laid in shallow trench

District Heating in Europe In Denmark, 60% of residences (1.5 million homes) are heated through district systems. In Finland, 50% of all space heating comes from district heating; over 90% of all apartments, public and commercial buildings are connected to district heat. Belgrade has 300 miles of district heat piping serving 180 million square feet of building space. (In the US only 3% of space heating is done with district heat systems.)

District Heating in Europe District heat share of single-family houses: Iceland 85% (geothermal) Denmark 47% (16% biomass) Austria 13% (21% biomass) Finland 12% (18% biomass) Sweden 11% (42% biomass) Source: http://www.euroheat.org/ecoheatcool/documents/Ecoheatcool%20WP4%20Web.pdf

District Heating in Europe 5,000 community district heating systems in Europe 78% of district heat sources are non-fossil Biomass (wood residues) is the biggest fuel source Other heat sources also used: industrial waste heat, heat from CHP, geothermal, waste incineration In Vermont we don’t have these other heat sources, but what we do have lot of is BIOMASS.

Biomass Community District Energy Urban Setting District Energy St. Paul

Biomass Community District Energy Small Community Setting Charlottetown, PEI, Canada

Biomass Community District Energy Small-Scale Setting Green Acres Family Housing Barre, Vermont

Biomass Community District Energy Cordwood boiler system Cobb Hill Co-Housing Hartland Four Corners, Vermont

Creating New from Old Wood-fired District Heating Montpelier State Complex District Heating System

New District/Campus Wood Energy Crotched Mountain Rehab Center Greenfield, New Hampshire

Wood Fuel Sources for District Energy

Fuel Transport and Delivery

Biomass District Energy Development Issues How do we build a new kind of municipal infrastructure? It’s not a technology issue. It’s a money issue.

Biomass District Energy Development Issues Where could the capital come from? Federal $ State $ Municipal bonds Private capital Fuel cost savings (ESCOs, a new NESCO?)

Conclusion Using our abundant wood residues to replace fossil fuels to heat downtowns using district energy systems makes sense in many ways. The challenge is how to organize and finance this new form of municipal infrastructure.

Contact Information Timothy Maker Senior Program Director Biomass Energy Resource Center 43 State Street Montpelier, VT 05601 802-223-7770 X 123 tmaker@biomasscenter.org www.biomasscenter.org