Last Thursday, the Maine Forest Service announced its Request for Application for its Public Building Wood to Energy Program, funded by $11.5 million in funds received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The Forest Service expects to use approximately $10 million of that money to fund at least fifteen "shovel-ready" projects to convert public buildings to wood or dual-fuel heating. Projects must be completed within one year of receiving a grant. The program is open to all Maine public entities or parties with public buildings, including schools, hospitals, state, county, local and tribal governments.
Two classes of projects will be eligible for awards:
Standard Projects:
Eligible for grants of up to $25,000. Example projects include smaller conversions to wood based systems such as a small pellet boiler or furnace or appropriately-sized wood pellet stove. Generally, these systems will be less than 200,000 BTU’s and will involve a single building or other small facility.
Complex Projects:
Eligible for grants of up to $750,000. Systems in this category will typically be larger systems in excess of 200,000 BTU’s installed in larger facilities or serving multiple building such as heating several dorms on a college campus.
Applications are due by January 5, 2010, with awards granted as soon after reciept. More information, including the complete Request For Applications, can be found at the Maine Forest Service's ARRA site.
The Forest Service's RFA represents the first significant funds Maine has put toward biomass conversion, despite several years of effort and study by Governor Baldacci's Wood to Energy Task Force and several legislative proposals to support biomass conversion for public buildings. Many see biomass as essential to help reduce the state's reliance on oil in general and foreign oil in particular, an issue of particular concern in Maine, where over 80% of homes rely on #2 heating oil for residential heating, more than any other state. New Hampshire's Governor John Lynch has also expressed support for use of biomass for heating.
The road ahead for biomass is uncertain: industrial biomass development in New England continues, with ten new biomass facilities in the ISO-NE Interconnection queue, totalling 373.65 MW of new capacity. Together with use of biomass for heating, this has prompted concerns about the capacity of Northern New England's forests, competition with the pulp and paper industry, and the environmental impact of burning all this wood. Nonetheless, for those facilities eligible for this RFA, these funds offer an opportunity for significant long term savings and reduced reliance on oil.
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