VT willow harvest promises cheap biomass fuel

Associated Press
By DAVE GRAM (AP) – 10-18-09

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Middlebury College used to heat its buildings with oil, then switched to wood chips. Now it has planted a sustainable and relatively cheap fuel source — willow shrubs - that could help cut demand on the state's forests.

With a nine-acre patch of the fast-growing willows, the college is conducting a biomass energy experiment that seeks to answer the question: What if wood chip-burning heat systems lead to the deforestation of Vermont?

Willows, which grow faster than other trees and branch out when pruned, may be the answer — and may be a resource for other cold-weather states, too. So Jack Byrne, director of sustainability for the college, and business services director Tom Corbin have turned into farmers of sorts, planting tightly packed rows of willows in a field west of Middlebury's campus.

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Vermont Forwards FIT, San Fran Looks to Small Wind

SustainableBusiness.com News
10/05/2009 12:03 PM

Vermont regulators last week published rules establishing what it calls a standard-offer program for medium-sized renewable energy programs in the state. The program will function like a feed-in tariff, guaranteeing purchase prices for power produced from solar, wind, biomass and other renewable resources.

As directed by the Vermont Energy Act of 2009, the Public Service Board is creating the program for qualifying SPEED (sustainably priced energy enterprise development) resources with a plant capacity of 2.2 megawatts (MW) or less.

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BurlingtonFreePress.com (Vermont)
By Nancy Remsen, Free Press Staff Writer • Sunday, October 4, 2009

Instead of thinking “yuck” when faced with shriveled brown apple cores, slimly spinach leaves and stinky chicken bones, Dan Hecht of Montpelier thinks “energy.”

“There is value to be derived from stuff we throw away,” he said.

In an age when finding alternative sources of energy is both a state and national priority, Hecht points to the potential in a squandered resource: food scraps.

For one thing, it’s plentiful, Hecht said: “Every city and town in America already possesses a major source of renewable energy, one that does not need to be mined, harvested, refined or transported long distances.”

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