Wood Energy Opportunities for Communities

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Wood EnergyOpportunities for Communities

• Lew McCreery
• lmccreery_at_fs.fed.us

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Todays Presentation

• Northeastern Area
• Wood Education and Resource Center
• Woody Biomass for Energy
• District Heating Concepts
• Funding Options

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State and Private Forestry is primarily focused
on ensuring sustainable management of non-Federal
forest lands.
The Northeastern Area works with the 20
Northeastern and Midwestern States, and the
District of Columbia.
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Wood Education and Resource Center
Main Office Building
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The WERC Mission

• Foster interaction and information exchange
  with the forest products industry to enhance
  opportunities for sustained forest products
  production in the eastern hardwood region of the
  United States.

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WERC States - Eastern Hardwoods
Eastern Hardwood Forest 162 Million Acres 35
States
93 total Eastern forest private other
public83 total Eastern forest private only
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Why WERC?

• Sustainability
• Industry
• Communities
• Forests

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Why WERC?

• Industry Challenges
• Job Losses - 5 years
• Wood Products 20,000
• Paper approx. 100,000

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WERC Current Focus

• Maintain and expand partnerships
• Annual competitive grants program
• Utilize new training center
• Technology evaluation/upgrade
• Investigate woody biomass opportunities

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Biomass 101

• Woody Biomass Sources
• Small-diameter trees
• Forest Residues
• Clearings and timberland conversions
• Residues
• Processing
• Construction/demolition
• Yard trimmings
• Production
• Conventional harvests
• Short-rotation woody crops
• Land use change

• Woody Biomass Uses
• Power (any scale)
• Electricity
• Heat and cooling
• Process Energy
• Fuels
• Ethanol
• Bio-diesel
• Jet fuels
• Methanol/bio-butanol, etc
• Bio-products (offset fossil energy)
• Building materials
• Chemicals
• Medicines

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More Biomass 101

• Wood Biomass Technologies
• Direct Combustion chips, pellets, bricks,
  w/coal
• Fermentation converting sugars to ethanol
• Gasification heating biomass in a reduced
  oxygen environment to produce synthetic gas
  (syngas)
• Pyrolysis heating biomass without oxygen and
  cooling gases to create pyrolysis oils
• Fractionation reducing biomass to cellulose,
  hemicellulose and lignin and processing these
  components
• Bio-refineries - Integration of above processes
  with existing industries

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Wood as a Fuel

• Low energy density
• Contains water
• Renewable
• Carbon neutral

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Wood Offers Fuel Cost Savings and Low Emissions
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Domestic Energy Prices

• Heating Oil
• 2001 - NE Household spent 775 on 630 gal.
• 2008 - NE household spent 2053 on 630 gal
• Natural Gas
• 2001 Household spent 698 on 70 MCF
• 2007 Household spent 900 on 70 MCF

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Institutional Scale Biomass Energy

• 26 schools in Vermont are heated with wood
• Cooley-Dickinson Hospital in North Hampton, MA
  and North Country Hospital in Newport, VT are
  heated, cooled, and powered with wood

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VT North Country Hospital Powers with Wood
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What is District Heating or Cooling

• Distribution of hot water or steam through
  networks of insulated pipes
• Meet the space heating, process heating, domestic
  hot water, or cooling needs of multiple buildings
• Sources of heat central plant, waste heat from a
  utility or industry, or geothermal wells

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Hot Water District Heating with Combined Heat and
Power

• First used in an English Asylum in 1876
• 150 small systems installed in the U.S. between
  1898 and 1905 using waste heat from electric
  power plants
• The last of these hot water systems was shut down
  in 1985.
• Reintroduced in the U.S. in the 1980s.
• Very widespread in Europe

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District Energy in Europe

• Europe and especially Scandinavia were hit hard
  by the oil shocks of the 1970s.
• Many countries pursued programs to reduce imports
  and increase energy efficiency.
• Denmark has rebuilt its entire energy
  infrastructure over the past 30 years.
• In Jutland (the mainland part of Denmark), all
  electricity is produced by cogeneration and wind
  power.

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Danish Biomass District Heating Plant

• 2 to 5 MWe biomass CHP plants canachieve thermal
  efficiencies above 90

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Hot Water Thermal Storage

• Unlike electricity, hot water can be stored in a
  simple tank, allowing it to be produced at the
  most economical time and used when necessary

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Hot Water District Heating in US

• Many high temperature (gt175C) systems on college
  campuses and military bases
• District Energy St. Paul - 278 MWTh
• Largest hot water system in North America
• 80 of the downtown business district
• 180 buildings and 300 homes
• Jamestown, NY 41 MWTh

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Efficiency and Emissions Benefits

• Waste heat from power plants and industries 30
  of nations energy use
• District heating/cooling systems improve energy
  efficiency and reduce emissions
• Europeans refer to these systems as highways for
  low-carbon heat

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District Energy Outcomes

• Use local renewable resources to reduce use of
  imported oil for building heating
• Keep energy dollars in the local community
• Reduce energy costs and alleviate fuel poverty
• Increase efficiency of energy production,
  distribution use
• Increase local electric generation capacity
• Use low cost thermal energy to promote economic
  development
• Give communities control over their energy future

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District Energy Systems

• Large Scale
• St. Paul, MN -289 megawatts thermal (987 million
  Btu per hour)
• Akron, OH - 375,000 pounds of steam per hour 20
  miles of distribution piping and serves more than
  200 businesses and residences
• Small Scale
• Barre, VT Apartment Complex -2.2 mmbtu/hr
• Ouje-Bougoumou, Quebec - 8.6 mmbtu/hr

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Small Scale will work

• Barre, VT Green Acres Apartments
• 50 units 2.2 MMBTU/hr since 1991
• Hot water distribution with wood chip fired
  heating plant
• Heating bills from 200-300/month to 24/month
• Wood supplies about 80 of space heat and hot
  water

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Financing Projects

• Private financing Energy Service Companies
• Bond sales taxable or tax-exempt
• Loan programs
• Grants
• Renewable Energy Credits
• Carbon Credits

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USDA RD Support

• Rural Energy for America (REAP) Title IX
  Section 9007
• Value Added Ag Product Market Development Grants
• Intermediary Re-lending Program
• Rural Economic Development 0-interest Loans and
  Grants
• Cooperative Development Grants and Loans

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Forest Service Support

• Woody Biomass Utilization Grants - FPL
• Market Development and Industry Competitiveness
  Grants - WERC
• Community Wildfire Protection Program
• Community Wood Energy Program

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Community Wood Energy Program

• 2008 Farm Bill (PL 110-246)Title IXENERGY,
  Section. 9013 Goals
• encourage the development of community wood
  energy plans
• help communities acquire or upgrade community
  wood energy systems.
• The program is authorized to receive
  appropriation of 5 million dollars annually till
  the year 2012.

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Community Wood Energy

• 50-50 match is required
• Planning Grants and Implementation Funds
• Implementation Funds - system size limits
• 50,000,000 Btu per hour for heating and
• 2 megawatts for electric power production.

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2025

• 25x25

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25x25
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25x25
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Biomass Future

• Expanded use is coming
• Energy, climate, farm and forest policy push
• Using biomass makes economic, climate and energy
  sense.
• Biomass offers opportunities to
• Reduce energy costs
• Support energy independence
• Mitigate climate change
• Support sustainable forest management

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Increased Use Requires Planning

• Address sustainability issues
• Wildlife
• Nutrients
• Water Air quality
• Impacts on existing industry
• Value added industries must be maintained
• Focus on highest value utilization
• Maintain management capability
• Public perception and support

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Renewable Portfolio Standards

• Policy that ensures the public benefits of wind,
  solar, biomass, and geothermal energy are
  recognized within electricity markets
• A Renewable Energy Credit (REC) is a tradable
  certificate of proof that one kWh of electricity
  was generated by a renewable-fueled source.
• Renewable goals, eligible technologies, and
  financial support vary among states.
• MA RPS has had major impacts on the renewable
  energy market in the Northeast.

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Fire, Invasives, Disaster, Forest Health

• Fuel load reduction, fire risk reduction, air
  quality issues
• Emerald Ash Borer, Sirex wood wasp
• Disasters like Katrinais the East Coast next?
• Southern Pine Beetle, Mtn. Pine Beetle

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Keys to our Bio-energy Future

• Sustainability
• Part of production and management system
• How much, where, managed impacts
• Cost Competitiveness
• Creditable financial analysis
• Documentable cost data
• Investment in infrastructure
• Focus on Efficiency

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Potential Opportunities Exist in the Use of Woody
Biomass

• Improved forest management
• Reduced fire danger
• Move toward energy independence
• Reduced competition with food crops
• GHG reductions and carbon offsets
• New revenue streams for landowners and existing
  forest industries
• Support to Keep Forests as Forests!

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Results and Outcomes WERCs Investment in
Biomass

• Demonstration projects
• More diverse energy portfolio
• Healthier forests
• Less waste along the entire supply and
  manufacturing chain
• Sustainable forest-based rural communities

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WERC Future Biomass Directions

• Feasibility assessments
• Expand biomass emphasis in grants program
• Develop portfolio of successful demonstration
  projects
• Develop analytical tools for use by interested
  parties
• Information dissemination for impact outreach
  and library
• Regional biomass conferences and meetings at WERC

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For more information

• http//www.na.fs.fed.us/ea/werc/werc.shtm/