New biomass facility to reduce greenhouse gases...(Middlebury College VT)

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New biomass facility to reduce greenhouse gases by almost 12,500 tons a year

http://www.middlebury.edu/about/pubaff/news_releases/news_2006/news632951384540792349.htm

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Middlebury College Director of Environmental Affairs Nan Jenks-Jay announced today that the college will proceed with its plan to construct a biomass plant, which will cut the college’s greenhouse gas emissions by almost 12,500 metric tons annually with power generated from wood chips rather than fuel oil. Her announcement followed a meeting of the Middlebury board of trustees, where the board approved the recommendation by administrators to build the facility.

The estimated cost of the project is $11 million. To finance the facility, the college will secure loans and has also applied for state grants. The plant will be located near the site of the college’s current power facility off South Main Street (Route 30). Work on the project will start in the spring of 2007 and the plant will begin operation in the fall of 2008.

Middlebury’s primary objective for the biomass facility is to provide a sustainable, local and renewable fuel source for heating, cooling and electricity for the campus. According to Jenks-Jay, the college’s long-range goal is to obtain wood chips harvested in an environmentally friendly manner from local sources. “Our hope is that the college’s entry into biomass will greatly stimulate the growth of the local, sustainable wood chip market and bioenergy economy in Addison County and Vermont,” she said. The college estimates that it will require 20,000 to 21,000 tons of chips per year.

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The biomass plant will cut the college’s use of number six fuel oil in half, from about two million gallons to one million gallons a year. Increasing the diversity of Middlebury’s energy sources, the facility will leave the college less dependent on the global oil supply and subject to the fluctuating price of oil. Use of the plant will also make it unnecessary to pay for the transportation by ship and truck of one million gallons of oil a year from thousands of miles away to Middlebury. There will be a reduction of carbon emissions produced in the fuel delivery process as well. Most of the money previously spent on the oil and its transport will continue to be spent on energy costs, but now these dollars will remain in Vermont and New England.

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