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Heat Your Campus
Large-scale boilers and combined heat-and-power systems can be used to provide heat for applications beyond the scope of a small woodstove. Although each installation will have its own unique challenges, there are some very good resources and programs available for students and school administrators looking to install one of these systems on a school or college campus. In areas with adequate forest resources to fuel a large scale system, woody biomass can be a cost-effective solution for campus heating needs. Today, almost 20 percent of Vermont public school students attend a school heated with wood, including Middlebury College. Green Mountain College, Bennington College, the University of Minnesota, Morris, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Montana Western Campus all have initiatives underway as well. Please explore the programs outlined here if you would like to bring woody biomass to your campus!BERC
The Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC) is an independent, national nonprofit organization located in Montpelier, Vermont that assists communities, colleges and universities, state and local governments, businesses, utilities, schools, and others in making the most of their local energy resources. BERC’s particular focus is on the use of woody biomass and other pelletizable biomass fuels, with the majority of their work in New England states.To help promote the use of woody biomass, BERC provides program services which include Fuels For Schools, Clean Energy Funds, state energy planning for biomass, and forest fire hazard reduction. Community and campus groups in Vermont can look to BERC for aid with program design, project assessment and implementation, and other technical resources.
Fuels for School
Fuels for Schools and Beyond is a program designed to help public schools and other public facilities reduce their heating costs while increasing forest health. It offers technical and financial assistance for schools looking to install biomass heating systems and burn waste wood from fuels reduction projects in nearby forests.
The program started in Vermont in the 1980s, when most of the state’s schools were heated using pricey electricity despite local biomass resources being readily available. In late 2001, Fuels for Schools spread to the Northern and Intermountain regions of the USDA’s Forest Service, with the Vermont program as a model.
There are now systems operating in Montana, Nevada, Idaho and North Dakota, while Wyoming and Utah are working to identify their demonstration communities. Within these western states, 16 projects have been either installed or are in the design phase. Pennsylvania also began a Fuels for Schools and Beyond program in 2008. Schools, institutions, greenhouses and other businesses have grant and loan opportunities available at certain times during the year from both state and federal programs.
While this program has much potential to save schools heating dollars, many boilers installed in schools may not be particularly clean. Regulations should be developed that require Fuels for Schools to only support installation of the cleanest boilers, that should typically be 83% efficent or higher. For more information, see p.3 of NESCAUM's 2008 petition to the EPA to develop stricter air emission standards for wood-burning stoves and boilers.