Fanning the Northeastern Biomass Flame

[The bio­mass indus­try is team­ing up with envi­ron­men­tal­ists to increase the amount of forests burned for pol­lut­ing ener­gy in the Great North Woods.]

Fan­ning the North­east­ern Bio­mass Flame

- by Joseph Sey­mour, March 11, 2014. Source: Bio­mass Magazine

Migrat­ing 1 mil­lion homes to bio­mass heat is optimistic—let alone 6 million—but recent devel­op­ments in the north­east­ern U.S. are dri­ving this vision ever clos­er to real­i­ty, says Bio­mass Ther­mal Ener­gy Coun­cil Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Joseph Seymour.

Bill Strauss, the Bio­mass Ther­mal Ener­gy Council’s chief econ­o­mist, recent­ly report­ed that 1.34 mil­lion jobs would be cre­at­ed if the 6 mil­lion rur­al homes using expen­sive fos­sil fuels like propane and heat­ing oil switched to domes­ti­cal­ly pro­duced wood pel­let fuel. Migrat­ing 1 mil­lion homes to bio­mass heat­ing fuels is optimistic—let alone 6 million—but recent devel­op­ments in the north­east­ern U.S. are dri­ving this vision ever clos­er to reality.

One sign came in Jan­u­ary with the roll­out of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2014 State of the State. In his address, Cuo­mo announced “Renew­able Heat NY: The Low-Emis­sion Bio­mass Heat­ing Ini­tia­tive,” a pro­gram designed to main­stream heat­ing with bio­mass. Aspects of the pro­gram include fuel-switch­ing at insti­tu­tion­al- and com­mer­cial-scale facil­i­ties, and grow­ing the state’s mar­ket for bulk deliv­ery of bio­mass fuels. As nov­el as the pro­gram is, what I found most inter­est­ing was the way in which the pro­gram was pitched, as an eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment tool. It is designed to help cre­ate financ­ing mech­a­nisms, bol­ster mar­kets, and then back away to allow for the pri­vate sec­tor to dri­ve future devel­op­ment. New York appears to be see­ing the ther­mal pol­i­cy for­est through trees.

Mass­a­chu­setts is yet anoth­er north­east­ern state press­ing for­ward on bio­mass ther­mal poli­cies.  By this column’s pub­li­ca­tion, the state’s Depart­ment of Ener­gy Resources will like­ly have announced the recip­i­ents of its renew­able ther­mal busi­ness pro­gram. Also, sup­port­ers of the Mass­a­chu­setts Renew­able Ther­mal Coali­tion breathed a sigh of relief when their name­sake bill passed through a key state Sen­ate com­mit­tee unan­i­mous­ly. If enact­ed, the bill would include ther­mal ener­gy from qual­i­fy­ing bio­mass instal­la­tions in the state’s alter­na­tive port­fo­lio stan­dard along­side geot­her­mal and solar ther­mal tech­nolo­gies. Although the bill con­tains fuel-sourc­ing and emis­sions require­ments for bio­mass sys­tems, the con­ces­sions were need­ed to advance to the bill. Leg­isla­tive hur­dles remain, but pas­sage this sum­mer is expected.

Maine rounds out the list of states that are press­ing for­ward on ther­mal. Though the Pine Tree State can­not boast the leg­isla­tive momen­tum of Massachusetts—though it is trying—it beats the oth­ers on ther­mal eco­nom­ics. The Jan­u­ary polar vor­tex sent propane prices soar­ing across the coun­try and con­sumers search­ing for alter­na­tives. In Maine, the state’s ener­gy office report­ed that in Jan­u­ary, heat­ing oil prices were up 4 per­cent and propane prices were up 23 per­cent com­pared to the same peri­od in 2013. Local fuels like wood pel­lets and cord­wood were run­ning more than $20 cheap­er per MMB­tu than propane, and around $13 less than heat­ing oil. Maine’s math is in biomass’s favor, even before fac­tor­ing in Effi­cien­cy Maine’s new $5,000 pel­let boil­er rebate pro­gram. A word to the wise, how­ev­er: Home­own­ers should act quick­ly to secure the rebate; the last pel­let boil­er rebate pro­gram was exhaust­ed in 48 hours. 

There are numer­ous notable state efforts that will go unmen­tioned, but their effects are felt beyond New Eng­land, as con­fi­dence in mod­ern bio­mass heat­ing grows. Togeth­er, the North­east­ern states are address­ing issues like the government’s role in the bio­mass heat­ing rev­o­lu­tion, envi­ron­men­tal com­pli­ance, sys­tem instal­la­tion best prac­tices, insur­ance and real estate con­sid­er­a­tions, for­est health and fuel pro­duc­tion, and broad­er access to mar­kets. Each of these items will addressed, explored and act­ed upon dur­ing the North­east Bio­mass Heat­ing Con­fer­ence and Expo, April 9–11, in Port­land, Maine. Come to Port­land and feel the heat of the ther­mal indus­try.  It is get­ting hot­ter by the minute.

Author: Joseph Seymour

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Bio­mass Ther­mal Ener­gy Council

jseymour@biomassthermal.org

202–596-3974