1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Crude Oil Production in the US
Peak Production in 1970

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

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

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

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

15. District Heat Infrastructure
District heat pipes being laid in shallow trench

16. 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.)

17. 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:

18. 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.

19. Biomass Community District Energy
Urban
Setting
District Energy St. Paul

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

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

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

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

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

25. Wood Fuel Sources for District Energy

26. Fuel Transport and Delivery

27. 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.

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

29. 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.

30. Contact Information
Timothy Maker
Senior Program Director
Biomass Energy Resource Center
43 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05601
X 123