Cook County’s forests have more than enough biomass to sustain a district biomass-fueled heating plant in Grand Marais, according to two grant-funded studies undertaken by Dovetail Partners on behalf of Cook County. The studies look at the feasibility of building and operating a biomass plant, including the amount of biomass that would be needed, the amount that is available, and the economic impacts of such a project.
Numerous configurations have been calculated, ranging from generating heat and power for government buildings, businesses, and residences in the center of town to heating government buildings only. Last month, the Cook County Biomass Committee met with representatives of the City of Grand Marais to talk about the findings so far.
“The amount of biomass required from any of these district heat configurations is relatively small,” said Project Coordinator Gary Atwood. The ones believed to be most feasible for district heat would include government buildings along Fifth Street and possibly the downtown business district. The infrastructure would require pipes buried 24 inches below the street surface.
Up to about 3,400 dry tons of biomass in the form of forest “refuse” per year would be needed for the proposed project, although 5,229 dry tons are already available each year from the Superior National Forest, not including what is cleared for the Firewise program to reduce the impact of wildfires. The amount harvested would be well under the amount considered sustainable for the health of the forest. “… We’re not going to be driving increased forest harvest,” said George Wilkes of the Biomass Committee and the Cook County Local Energy Project. City Administrator Mike Roth said, “You’re using a bi-product rather than a commodity someone else wants to use.”
According to Paul Nelson of the Biomass Committee, emissions for the potential project would be a fraction of those allowed under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards.
John Bottger, another committee member, said, “Technology is really moving at a rapid pace.”
Gregg Mast of the Minnesota BioBusiness Alliance and Life Science Alley, organizations promoting life science businesses, is very familiar with successful biomass projects both in the United States and abroad. He said the U.S. alone has 837 biomass district energy systems, 21 of which are in Minnesota. Austria has over 1,500 and Sweden has over 2,000. The Midwest is “well-positioned” to move to widespread use of biomass, Mast said. Getting a plant up and running is not necessarily easy, however. “If it were easy,” he said, “everybody would be doing it.”
Smithport, Pennsylvania built a biomass combined heat and power plant that draws 600 -1,000 visitors a week, Mast said, and the town had to build a hotel to accommodate them all. George Wilkes said the studies have investigated a combined heat and power plant for Grand Marais, but the payback on the investment would be twice as long as a heat-only system. Mast said with electricity being high here, he thought maybe such a plant would be feasible, but he would have to check into it more to be sure. The communities that have installed biomass systems have had specific purposes for pursuing them, such as to retain jobs in the timber industry, he said.
Biomass systems have been going up in Sweden for 20 or 30 years, Mast said, and bioenergy now accounts for 32 percent of the nation’s energy use. The country has reduced greenhouse gas emissions while enhancing their economy, he said. They believe using the refuse from timber harvests decreases the cost of the products made from cordwood.
Some believe that Sweden is stripping its forests bare, said Gary Atwood. Mast said management practices vary from country to country. “The Swedes say, ‘We can’t even walk through your forests.’ We can’t believe how they’re being mismanaged!’” he said.
The U.S. Forest Service requires that 30 percent of harvest residue be left on the forest floor, said Paul Nelson. The proposed model is based on leaving 50 percent of the residue behind.
The Biomass Committee will be working on whether entities such as North Shore Hospital and local businesses would see a quick enough payback period or enough benefit to making any necessary retrofits to make getting on board worthwhile.
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