Posts Tagged ‘biomass’
Wisconsin incentives to favor biomass, biogas over wind, solar
>> Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The state Focus on Energy program will target its renewable energy funding toward biomass and biogas technologies, leaving fewer dollars available for wind energy and solar projects.
Biomass, geothermal replacing coal on campuses
>> Midwest Energy News
Michigan State University students hold up petitions calling for clean energy and not coal on campus at a rally on Wednesday. (Photo by Kim Teplitzky / Sierra Club)
April 13, 2012
By Dan Haugen
The Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla was founded in 1870 as a school of mining and metallurgy, supporting the Ozark region’s lead and zinc industries.
Next week, school officials will celebrate the start of a new chapter, one that involves extracting heat from the ground rather than minerals.
Missouri S&T will break ground Tuesday on a $32 million geothermal energy facility — a system of wells and pipes that will provide heat to 15 buildings, as well as chilling for the campus’ water system.
The project, which will replace an aging coal-fired steam plant, is expected to cut the school’s energy consumption in half and reduce carbon emissions by 25,000 tons a year.
It’s one of twenty victories the Sierra Club is counting as part of its Campuses Beyond Coal campaign, in which student groups have put pressure on administrators to shutdown coal-burning power plants (the Sierra Club is a member of RE-AMP, which also publishes Midwest Energy News).
A dozen Midwest universities have recently committed to phase out coal-burning power plants on their campuses. They include schools in Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin.
Support for transition
At Missouri S&T, it wasn’t much of a fight.
Graduate student Eric Farrow led a brief campaign in late 2010 that involved tabling and a petition drive. But by then, administrators had already announced plans to replace the coal-fired power plant with a geothermal facility. All that remained was for the school’s governing board to approve bonding money, which it did in November 2010.
“It was more of a showing of student support for the administration’s decision,” says Farrow.
Ted Ruth, the school’s director of design construction management, says several factors were behind the decision to mothball the coal- and wood-burning campus steam plant. For starters, it’s old, inefficient and in need of about $26 million in deferred maintenance.
Meanwhile, new environmental regulations are making it more expensive and complicated to keep operating coal plants.
“We’re trying to stay ahead of that curve,” says Ruth.
Sustainability concerns played a role, too. In addition to energy savings, the school expects to conserve about 8 million gallons of water per year using geothermal instead of steam heat.
Missouri S&T’s campus was built around the coal plant, which sits right in the center of it. Crews will remove the coal yard, elevator chute, and other pieces of the plant, but no decision has been made yet on how to repurpose the building, says Ruth.
“No coal plant I know is aesthetically appealing,” he says.
The geothermal project is expected to be completed in 2014. The school also plans to increase its reliance on natural gas in order to fully replace the energy it currently gets from the steam plant.
A mix of solutions
That type of hybrid approach is a pretty common one for schools that are working to phase out coal on campus, says Kim Teplitzky, a national press secretary for the Sierra Club campaign.
When the campaign began in September 2009, the organization identified 60 schools with coal-burning power plants on campus. It’s worked to organize or support student groups at each of those schools to encourage administrators to shut down the plants.
“Really the pitch is about leadership, it’s about preparing students for [clean energy] jobs, and about saving money in the long run by investing in clean energy solutions,” says Teplitzky.
So far, about a third of the schools on its target list have committed to phase out coal. Some have done so simply by switching to natural gas. Others have pursued major renewable projects.
Eastern Illinois University celebrated the opening of one of the country’s largest biomass facilities last fall. The Renewable Energy Center includes two biomass gasifiers and are expected to reduce the school’s annual carbon emissions by about 20,000 metric tons.
Other Midwest universities that have pledged to stop burning coal on campus include Case Western Reserve, Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Miami (in Oxford, Ohio), Minnesota (Crookston and Twin Cities), Oberlin College, Ohio, Southeast Missouri State, Western Illinois, and Wisconsin (Madison).
Other schools that haven’t signed the pledge are also moving forward with renewable energy projects, including Ball State and the University of Toledo.
Many of the early pledgers were, like Missouri S&T, already predisposed to moving off of coal. “The ones that are left are going to be the tougher campaigns,” says Teplitzky, citing Southern Illinois, Carbondale, in the heart of coal country, as an example.
Michigan State vote today
A two-story-tall inflatable inhaler went up this week at Michigan State University, where students demonstrated Wednesday against an Energy Transition Plan they say is inadequate.
MSU Beyond Coal says the document, which calls for an eventual transition to 100 percent renewable energy, lacks concrete benchmarks and ignores the urgency of retiring the campus coal plant.
“We feel that there is a lot more potential to be more aggressive and use resources that are here now,” says sophomore Mollie VanOrsdol, one of the group’s organizers.
Environmentalist Bill McKibben spoke at the school this week to support the student group’s cause.
Michigan State’s board of trustees is expected to vote on the energy plan at its monthly meeting today.
Update: Michigan State’s board of trustees Friday morning unanimously approved the school’s Energy Transition Plan, which calls for the university to use 40 percent renewable power by 2040.
The MSU Beyond Coal student group issued a statement after the vote:
“We’re really disappointed that the board chose to move this so-called plan forward even though it lacks innovation, real clean energy goals or a plan for retiring the dirty coal plant on campus,” said student Talya Tavor. “This could have been an opportunity for MSU to be a national clean energy leader, but instead the transition plan simply puts off any real investments or dedication to clean energy to an unknown future date with no accountability.”
Dan Haugen is an Energy Journalism Fellow at Midwest Energy News. Contact him at dan@danhaugen.com.
As gas prices plunge, Minnesota campus finds biomass competitive
>> Minnesota Public Radio
Officials at the University of Minnesota Morris were thrilled to find out this week that even with natural gas prices at 10-year lows, heating the campus with biomass was a competitive alternative to burning fossil fuels.
Bidders line up to provide renewable energy to Cincinnati
>> Cincinnati Business Courier
Cincinnati is trying to become the largest city in the country to source 100 percent of its energy supply from renewables, and the city has received proposals from seven companies willing to provide discounted rates on electric service.
Cleveland fires waste-to-energy consultant over faulty analyses
>> Cleveland Plain Dealer
After receiving several drafts of reports laden with errors and ambiguous calculations, the city of Cleveland has fired the consultant responsible for designing a proposed trash-to-electricity plant.
The chicken-and-egg challenge to scaling biomass
Harvesting switchgrass in Tennessee. (Photo by eXtension Ag Energy via Creative Commons)
Steve Flick is trying to solve one of the many chicken-and-egg problems facing renewable fuels.
Flick is founder of the Show Me Energy Cooperative in Centerview, Missouri. Since 2008, the company has been making biomass fuel pellets out of straw, corn stover and other agricultural leftovers.
There’s only so much of those materials to go around, though, and if Show Me is to grow, it’s going to need a dedicated crop of its own instead of relying on farmers’ table scraps.
But farmers are reluctant to plant the type of energy crops best suited for Show Me’s biorefinery because there isn’t an established market for them yet. Why would a farmer give up a known commodity for a chance to get in on a unproven industry?
“They have to have that safety net of understanding they’ve got a place to sell their product,” says Flick.
Show Me is prepared to pay for the bales of native grasses it needs, but most farmers — and their lenders — don’t want to risk committing land for an industry that’s still in start-up mode. And with commodity prices as high as they are, fledgling biomass producers can’t compete with what a farmer could otherwise earn growing corn, soybeans or wheat.
“It boils down to net income per acre,” says Flick.
Creating incentives
The solution, he hopes, might lay in the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, or BCAP. The federal program, which was created in the 2008 Farm Bill, pays farmers near biorefineries to grow dedicated crops for those facilities. It took the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) a few years — and missteps — to finalize the current rules, but last year it announced the first round of projects to be included.
BCAP offers annual payments to farmers for planting perennial biomass crops. It also provides matching payments up to $45 per ton for collecting, harvesting, storing and transporting biomass materials.
The program only supports farmers in designated project areas. The areas range in size from 1,000 to 50,000 acres and each center around a specific biomass production facility. So far, the USDA has approved nine project areas, three of which are in Missouri. Another straddles the Ohio-Pennsylvania border and the rest are located to the south or west.
The zone around Show Me’s biorefinery was the first project area approved under the program, says Flick. Over the next couple of months, farmers will begin planting native grasses on their marginal land (a requirement of the BCAP project). At the end of the year, they’ll harvest it, bale it, and deliver it to Show Me Energy, which will use it to increase its fuel pellet production.
“This is just a classic case where public policy can play a strong role in triggering a new industry,” says Andy Olsen, a senior policy advocate with the Environmental Law & Policy Center.
Program may be at risk
Before the first seeds have even sprouted, there’s already concern that Congress may cut or eliminate funding for the program. House and Senate leadership have signaled they may not fund the program beyond the current year, says Olson. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said last month the administration would seek flexibility from Congress to use research and rural development funds to support bioenergy crops.
BCAP spending for fiscal year 2012 was capped at $17 million.
Olsen says biomass projects such as Show Me Energy serve multiple policy goals. They’re a source of cleaner-burning, homegrown energy, and the crops they use as feedstocks can help reduce soil erosion, improve air and water quality and conserve wildlife habitat.
Flick is scheduled to speak in Washington, D.C., today at a pair of legislative briefings to highlight BCAP’s importance. He doesn’t think the business model will depend on BCAP payments forever, but convincing a farmer to go from soybeans to switchgrass today requires extra incentive, along with education. The goal: to show farmers they can make money growing energy crops.
“If he’s making money, he’s going to keep doing it,” says Flick. “That’s real life.”
Dan Haugen is an Energy Journalism Fellow at Midwest Energy News. Contact him at dan@danhaugen.com.
Small Minnesota town becomes test kitchen for farm-sourced biomass
>> West Central Tribune
The Minnesota Valley Alfalfa Producers are striving to concoct the right recipe for rural economic development and energy independence.
Universities become natural leaders in renewable energy
>> Midwest Energy News
A solar panel at the University of Minnesota's Morris campus. (Photo by CERTs via Creative Commons)
February 7, 2012
By Kari Lydersen
Beneath the campus of Ball State University in Indiana is a labyrinth of pipes 400 feet deep, filled with water that heats and cools much of the campus and that, when complete, will allow the school to retire four archaic coal-fired boilers.
At the University of Minnesota’s twin campuses in Morris, two 1.6-megawatt wind turbines provide more than half the school’s electricity and power experimental operations making hydrogen fuel and fertilizer. Two solar thermal installations heat and cool an indoor pool and other buildings; and a biomass reactor uses corn cobs to generate steam for heating, cooling and electricity.
Colleges and universities in the Midwest and nationally are increasingly adopting onsite renewable and clean energy – geothermal, wind, solar and biomass installations – as a way to promote sustainability, reduce carbon footprints, dovetail with research programs, and ideally result in long-term cost savings.
The University of Toledo meets much of its power needs with a 1.12-megawatt solar array and an 80-kilowatt wind farm at its Scott Park Campus of Energy and Innovation; officials have committed to eventually powering the entire campus with renewable energy and biofuels. The school’s new indoor football field and sports complex is heated and cooled entirely through a geothermal system.
Universities can also commit to buy clean energy – usually at a higher price than fossil fuel-generated power – from a utility company. In December Oklahoma State University signed a 20-year deal to power its main campus in Stillwater by a 60-megawatt wind farm being built by the Florida company NextEra Energy Resources, through a contract With Oklahoma Gas & Electric. The University of Wisconsin purchases 16 percent of its energy from renewable sources, though it doesn’t generate clean energy itself.
Many colleges and universities are also undertaking ambitious energy efficiency programs, with the idea that the cleanest and cheapest energy is energy not used at all. The University of Minnesota reports it has saved $4.6 million a year in energy costs through efficiency upgrades, making it a leader in a recent national initiative to promote energy efficiency on campus.
Financing advantages and disadvantages
In several ways, universities are ideal locations for on-site renewable energy. They usually have large buildings with ample roof space for solar arrays. They often have room for wind turbines on campus grounds, or on surrounding public land or private farmland. Higher learning institutions are embracing sustainability practices from LEED-certified buildings to comprehensive recycling programs to electric vehicle fleets, so on-site clean energy is a natural fit. The development, installation and maintenance of such systems can be part of the curriculum and provide internship and field trip opportunities, as well as creating local jobs.
But especially given current state budget crises, the financing of renewable energy projects can be challenging. Since they don’t pay taxes, universities can’t directly take advantage of renewable energy tax breaks. In some cases, including at the University of Toledo, universities can enter a power purchase agreement (PPA) with a third party company which will take advantage of tax breaks and then sell power to the university.
The university’s solar array is owned by the company Constellation Energy, but the university will eventually have the option to purchase the system if it chooses. Rick Stansley, chairman of the board for Innovation Enterprises at the University of Toledo, said if the university decides to purchase the system it can sell renewable energy credits to utilities to help them meet their Renewable Portfolio Standard obligations.
The University of Minnesota’s West Central Research and Outreach Center and Morris campuses, across a river from each other, received significant money for their projects from state bond issues and the university’s Institute on the Environment, funded by state ratepayers through Xcel Energy’s Renewable Development Fund. With the wind turbines generating about 5 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, they expect energy cost savings over the turbines’ lifetimes.
Private companies also help support renewable energy on campus, through research partnerships and equipment donations. For example, the University of Houston, in the heart of fossil fuel country, recently launched a 20-kilowatt solar array donated by Green Mountain Energy Company. University sustainability coordinator Leah Wolfthal said it is a keystone of an increasing focus on renewable energy technology at the school. Valued at $140,000, it is expected to save the school $300,000 in energy costs over its 30-year lifetime.
Workers bore holes for Ball State University's geothermal energy system. The coal-burning boiler in the background will eventually be shut down. (Photo courtesy Ball State University)
Out with the coal, in with the new
Ball State still needs $30 million to complete its geothermal system, which will be the largest of its kind in the country, according to Jim Lowe, director of engineering, construction and operations. The existing system, which heats and cools about half the campus’s major buildings, was built with a $5 million U.S. Department of Energy grant and a $45 million state appropriation for replacing aging boilers.
Ground was broken in 2009, and currently 1,800 bore holes on the north side of campus are laced with two looped pipes per hole, filled with circulating water that uses the year-round constant temperature of the earth to cool buildings in summer and heat them in winter. This summer they will start boring 780 holes under the south campus, each 500 feet deep and containing one pipe loop.
Ball State’s four coal-fired boilers, built in 1941 and 1955, will need to be retired in coming years because of decreasing efficiency and their inability to meet federal mercury standards. They also emit about 85,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
University officials originally planned to replace them with boilers that would burn 30 percent biomass, but after that plan proved too expensive they turned to geothermal. Lowe said the complete geothermal system will cost about $15 million more than the cheapest alternative boiler plan, but will save about $2 million per year compared to that plan.
Renewable energy projects and research on campus can also help spark manufacturing in the surrounding area. Stansley said the Scott Park campus has contributed to a proliferation of wind turbine component manufacturing in Ohio in the past few years.
“We’re just now starting to see the supply chain advantage – when we put the array in on Scott Park campus, we had about 90 percent of the product other than the modules themselves really produced outside the Ohio area, a lot from outside the country,” he said. “In more recent installations in the state, we have reversed that. About 95 percent of the materials are all produced in the U.S., primarily in Ohio.”
The renewable energy installations in Morris are largely from Minnesota suppliers. And officials hope an experimental project there will spur wind development and help farmers statewide: they use wind power to create anhydrous ammonia fertilizer and hydrogen fuel – a way to efficiently use electricity when the wind is blowing strong, eliminating the need for battery storage or transmission lines.
The universities all view their projects as models for other institutions and municipalities. Lowe said representatives from more than 30 entities including the city of Toronto have expressed interest in replicating Ball State’s geothermal system. University of Minnesota, Morris sustainability coordinator Troy Goodnough said the two campuses’ efforts also complement sustainability initiatives by local dairies and farmers.
“What’s exciting to me is this region is an evolving renewable energy destination,” he said. “If people want to spend an afternoon and see a lot of renewable energy technologies in action and kick the tires, I can’t think of a better place to come.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of the story implied the University of Toledo planned to purchase its solar array from Constellation Energy. It has the option to do so, but no decision has been made.
Kari Lydersen is a Chicago-based freelancer and author whose work appears in The Chicago News Cooperative, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other outlets.
This work by Midwest Energy News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Cleveland trash-to-energy plant faces tough fight in city council
>> Cleveland Plain Dealer
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has made a trash-to-electricity plant the centerpiece of his new strategy for garbage disposal, but he is having trouble selling the controversial idea to the City Council.
Wisconsin regulators defend decision to cut renewable funding
>> Associated Press
Wisconsin’s PSC defended a decision Wednesday to suspend renewable energy funding from a popular utilities program, despite criticism from businesses that it damages the state’s renewable energy marketplace.
