New Wisconsin governor ends UW-Madison biomass project

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Anna Austin January 24, 2011

A biomass power project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been nixed by new Republican Gov. Scott Walker, on account of the project’s high cost.

Projected to top out at a price tag about $251 million, the plan was to replace the university’s coal-burning boilers with natural gas furnaces initially, and then in a second phase to occur by late 2013, annually combust about 250,000 tons of wood chips, ag residue and switchgrass pellets.

The project was heavily endorsed by Wisconsin’s former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, who had a goal of drastically decreasing the amount of coal burned in the state. While the facility will no longer use coal, it will still remain reliant on a sole fossil fuel—natural gas.

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