Governor announces final round of heating conversion grants
Northern Maine Community College, SAD 20 to start burning wood
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
Officials at Northern Maine Community College and SAD 20 (Fort Fairfield) hope to reduce their dependency on foreign oil by burning wood beginning later this fall.
Gov. Paul LePage announced May 23 that NMCC and SAD 20 were among 11 oil-to-wood heating projects that are receiving $3.2 million in federal recovery funds. The grants are the third and final round awarded under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA) energy grants, which first were announced in August 2009 and awarded by the USDA Forest Service to the Maine Forest Service (MFS).
NMCC received a $500,000 grant on a $985,726 project, which will replace an oil-fired boiler that is more than 40 years old and will provide heating for the Christie Complex and the Mailman Trades Building.
“There is a focus regionally, as well as nationally, to look to develop alternative energy resources,” said NMCC President Timothy Crowley. “We applied for a grant to basically establish a biomass boiler here on campus and convert from oil to wood pellets. There are several of these projects in the region at this point; what is unique for NMCC, is that in addition to reducing our dependence on foreign oil, there is also a biomass education and training program that will be developed here to go along with this equipment.
“The use of pellet boilers and boilers that use wood chips is increasing and the technicians to go with that, in terms of managing the systems, the instrumentation and the products to help maintain and operate those boilers, will increase,” said Crowley. “We’ll not only install a boiler that’s going to help us reduce our energy costs and consumption of foreign oil, but we will develop a degree training program to go with it. Typically we try to generate 16-18 students at a time, but we’re a year away from that, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
Crowley said the construction project will begin within the next 120 days.
“I would expect by the middle of the fall we’ll be well under way,” he said. “I don’t know if it will help us this heating season or not, but our goal would be to have it available this heating season so when we get into November and December we have made the conversion. A lot of that, however, will depend on the availability of the boiler that we’ll need to purchase to do this.”
The boiler, Crowley said, will burn pellets.
“We also want to have a boiler that’s capable of burning not only wood pellets but grass pellets,” he said. “There is a research development project under way in Aroostook County to develop a pellet from grass that can be grown on the farmland here. We want to make sure that we have a boiler that’s capable of doing that.”
Crowley said the biomass project will positively impact the region.
“This will create jobs,” he said. “The pellets that are needed to supply these boilers that are being installed will all be bought locally, so the people who cut the wood, who create the pellet, who market the pellet and who deliver the pellet — it creates jobs in that respect. It’s really a win-win project from the standpoint of reducing dependence on fossil fuel and creating local jobs at the same time.”
Appreciative of the $500,000 grant, Crowley said the remaining $485,726 will come from the college’s budget and donations.
NMCC typically uses 47,000 gallons of fuel each year.
“If you figure that at $3 a gallon, this will be a big savings,” said Crowley. “The pellet and chip market will probably go up because the demand will be higher, but the cost will be less than what you’re going to pay for fuel oil.
“This project scored very highly with the Department of Conservation when they went through it, and we’re excited about it,” he said. “From a financial standpoint, from an educational standpoint and from an economic development standpoint, this project’s a real winner. The college has an energy conservation plan that is now four years old, and this is another piece of the puzzle. We spent the last three years reducing our dependence on oil, improving and reducing our electrical use, and making our systems and facilities more efficient; our next step is to look at alternative energy to help operate our facilities. This is part of a well-written, documented plan we have in place to enhance the operation of these facilities and make the most of the dollars we have.”
SAD 20’s $1,465,750 project received a major boost with a $500,000 federal heating conversion grant.
“We’re putting in a 3 million BTU wood chip boiler either in the high school or a separate building outside,” said Superintendent Marc Gendron, “but the biomass model will be located at the middle/high school.
“We’re going to have a bin which will be filled with wood chips,” he said, noting that a walking floor system will move the chips to the auger feeding the boiler. “It will be an automatic feed, and a gasification system where everything is burned three times and meets all EPA emission standards.”
Though located at Fort Fairfield Middle/Senior High School, the district’s elementary school will also benefit from the project.
“We’re going to pipe the water from the high school to the elementary school underground in Tex tubing (an insulated pipe surrounded by Styrofoam),” Gendron said. “We’re going to dig a trench, lay the pipe about four feet underground, and the hot water that’s heated by our biomass boiler will go about 1,000 yards to the elementary school, connect to their boiler, and heat the water that will heat that building.”
Gendron said the district is currently spending between $135,000 and $150,000 in oil.
“Of that money, not much of it stays in our community,” he said. “By going to wood chips, instead of that money leaving our area, all the wood chips will be provided locally … anywhere from Houlton to Fort Kent. We’re not importing the chips from Canada or the South, and that will help us provide long-term jobs for the people that work in the woods, as well as those who process and deliver the chips. There will also be some temporary jobs in terms of the construction project.”
Gendron has been meeting with officials to discuss the timeframe of the project, but indicated that he would like to be burning wood to heat the buildings by Nov. 15.
“We’re still working on final details of the financing because this is going to be a performance contract; there won’t be any bond or any debt,” he said. “What isn’t paid by the grant will be paid by the savings through the biomass boiler. There are also some engineering and cost-saving measures that we’re going to look at in the area of everything from water to conservation. There will be some opportunity for savings above and beyond the boiler.”
The wood chip boiler is estimated to replace 90 percent of the district’s oil needs.
The Wood to Energy Grants Program awards, ranging from $25,000 to $500,000, are going to Maine institutions across the state, including four schools, four towns, one college, one university and one hospital. The awards will help each institution convert from heating with oil to heating with wood chips or wood pellets, according to the Maine Forest Service.
The grants are expected to support around 110 jobs through the construction phase of these projects.
The latest projects are expected to use 2,171 tons of pellets and 3,035 tons of chips annually, according to the Maine Forest Service.
“This program is about harvesting, processing, transporting and consuming more Maine wood,” Gov. Paul LePage said. “This all adds up to more Maine jobs.”
All 22 ARRA grant recipients have committed to using Maine wood products for their new energy projects, according to MFS officials.
“The Maine Forest Service Wood to Energy Grants Program is helping schools, a community college, two branches of the University of Maine System, hospitals, towns and cities convert to a fuel supply that supports local forest land owners, local harvesters, local chippers and pellet manufacturers, and local haulers,” said Doug Denico, Maine Forest Service director. “In turn, the great forest resources of the state will support these important institutions with renewable, reliable, plentiful and economical fuel. It is the kind of win-win situation that is often spoken of, but that has now become a reality.”
“Increased use of wood fuels provides significant energy, environmental and economic advantages for Maine schools, hospitals and public buildings,” said Ken Fletcher, director of the Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security. “The OEIS supports these projects as steps forward in our need to curb the effects of oil dependence and to spur local economic development opportunities, including job creation potential of moving to clean, renewable, made-in-Maine energy resources.”
According to Tom Wood, Maine Forest Service senior planner, when completed, the latest projects will save the recipients between one-half to two-thirds on their annual heating bills. In addition, rather than buying foreign oil, the grant recipients will purchase Maine wood processed and delivered by Maine workers.
“The local tax dollar spent on heat will now stay local, supporting local forest landowners, local harvesters, local chippers, and local haulers,” he said.
