G Brown NewsLetter Jan 2012

WOOD PELLET NEWSLETTER
January 2012
Gerald W brown * 7202 County Road U * Danbury, WI 54830 Phone 715-866-8535
Gerald Brown is solely responsible for the content in this newsletter




• HOME HEATING EFFICIENCY BILL INTRODUCED IN US SENATE


• FIRST SHIPMENT OF PELLETS LEAVES VA. PORT TERMINAL


• POSITIONED FOR PELLETS


• ONTARIO WOOD PELLET PLANT TO BEGIN OPERATING SOON, AN INDUSTRIAL INFO NEWS ALERT



• VIRIDIS ENERGY BUYS ENLIGNA WOOD PELLET PLANT IN NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA

• CANADIAN PELLETS, NOT MAINE’S?

• FIRST SHIPMENT OF ENVIVA’S WOOD PELLETS SENT TO EUROPEAN CUSTOMERS

• ADVANCED BIO HEAT COMPANY ANNOUNCES BREAKTHROUGH


• GROWERS USING DIFFERING FORMS TO SAVE MONEY


• THE WORLD’S LARGEST WOOD PELLET-BASED BIOMASS POWER PLANT

• GERMAN PELLETS SETS UP ITALIAN SUBSIDIARY


• VERSO PAPER COMPLETES MICH. BIOMASS CHP PROJECT



• ME GREENHOUSES SWITCHED FROM OIL TO WOOD PELLETS THREE YEARS AGO, SAVING MONEY

• AGENCY APPROVED FOR WOOD PELLET CERTIFICATION

• E.ON TO CONVERT UK COAL PLANT TO BIOMASS


• GLOBAL WOOD PELLET PRODUCTION EXCEEDS CONSUMPTION


• WOOD-PELLET SYSTEM GETS TOP MARKS

• GREEN ENERGY PLANT TO BRING HUNDREDS OF JOBS TO HULL

• EAST TEXAS PLANT TO CREATE WOOD PELLET FUEL FOR THE EUROPEAN MARKET

• NORTHWEST TERRITORIES COULD GET 60,000 TON/YEAR WOOD PELLET MILL




































HOME HEATING EFFICIENCY BILL INTRODUCED IN US SENATE
By Luke Geiver | December 08, 2011
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If a recently introduced piece of energy efficiency legislation sent to Congress by three Senators passes, U.S. homeowners may soon see reduced energy bills.
The Cut Energy Bills at Home Act, introduced with bipartisan support by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., would give homeowners up to a 30 percent tax credit for increasing home energy efficiency.
The bill is all about performance, said Matt Golden, policy chair of Efficiency First, during a recent webinar to explain the intricacies of the bill if passed as is. “What really matters is what happens at the meter,” Golden said. “It is really about focusing on the outcomes.” So, for wood pellet users, suppliers or anyone related to the biomass home heating industries, the current text of the bill should not exclude biomass-based systems from qualifying for any tax credits.
But, Golden also said the bill is really about predictive performance, and according to the Alliance For Green Heat, most energy efficiency software packages are not capable of analyzing the performance and savings generated by biomass heaters. Under the legislation, a homeowner would have to use an accredited contractor that would establish baseline energy use at the home using a specific standard. Software certified by Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET), or a company accredited by an equivalent certification program, would then be used to verify an increase in energy savings.
The performance-based system would award a tax credit starting at a 20 percent reduction rate of heating, cooling, water heating or permanent lighting, all of which would earn $2,000. The credit is then increased by $500 for every additional 5 percentage points in energy savings with a maximum credit capped at $5,000. The credit would expire in 2014.
Although the topic of wood pellet home heating systems was not directly brought up during the initial webinar to explain the bill, it was addressed in another webinar that lasted more than an hour and included more than 700 attendees interested in the legislation’s potential. Steve Nadel, executive director for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, did indicate that for homes heated by wood, the tax credit would apply as long as any energy savings related to such an energy option could be modeled.
RESNET, the energy auditing coalition that helped the three Senators draft the bill, explained that a performance-based model should be given support on the merit that such a bill would allow a consumer to decide how to alter a home’s energy inputs.


FIRST SHIPMENT OF PELLETS LEAVES VA. PORT TERMINAL
By Luke Geiver | January 03, 2012
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The Port of Chesapeake in Virginia has officially entered the biomass shipping business. On Dec. 31, Enviva LP, sent 28,000 metric tons of wood pellets to one of Enviva’s European utility customers aboard the MV Daishin Maru.
The inaugural shipment was the result of a construction process that started in February 2011 and included more than 25 independent contractors. The deep water terminal outside of Norfolk, Va., includes a 157-foot-by-175-foot wood pellet storage dome that can receive, hold or store up to three million tons of woody biomass set for export each year, all while withstanding large-scale hurricanes and earthquakes. Enviva’s new Ahoskie, N.C., pellet mill is currently supplying the Port of Chesapeake shipping site.
As the biomass industry grows and export volumes reach the millions of tons per year, Enviva will need to focus on terminal operations including issues relating to safety, quality, product reliability and product storage, according to John Keppler, chairman and CEO for Enviva. “We expect Enviva’s Port of Chesapeake facility to be a flagship operation, demonstrating excellence in this area and proving our capability to build the sustainable infrastructure necessary to support the tremendous growth that is projected for solid, renewable biomass sources,” he said.
After opening the Ahoskie facility in November 2011, the company also announced plans to build two more facilities, one in North Carolina and one in Virginia, both of which are strategically located to cut transport costs to and from the Port of Chesapeake. The deepwater facility currently employees 14 and Enviva expects that number to double in three years.


POSITIONED FOR PELLETS
With port and rail expansions under development, Maine is on the cusp of entering the wood pellet export market.
By Lisa Gibson | January 05, 2012
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•
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Infrastructure Upgrade: The Port of Eastport will soon be capable of exporting wood pellets to Europe.
PHOTO: JAMES LOWE

The Port of Eastport in eastern Maine will be prepared this month to export wood chips to Europe, extending that capacity to wood pellets soon thereafter. It’s a significant milestone, as the wood pellet export industry has been delayed in the Northeast U.S., despite the fact that it has immense freight advantages to Europe over many other global pellet production hot spots, even the Southeast U.S.
The Northeast has only three deepwater ports, all in Maine and none with the infrastructure to handle wood pellets. Until now. All three of those ports are gearing up in some way to descend on the pellet export market, cashing in on numerous advantages, not the least of which being proximity to Europe’s growing demand.

“Back in ’08-’09, we saw on the horizon this was going to be a market that was going to explode and we looked up and down the coast of the Eastern United States and said, ‘There’s an opportunity here,’” says Chris Gardner, executive director of the Port of Eastport.

Construction on the port’s expansion was underway throughout all of 2011, with the installation of a bulk yard and 800-foot by-directional conveyor system capable of handling both import and export commodities. Currently, the system is designed for chips, but will most definitely be tailored to handle pellets, too, with the installation of covered storage. “We’ve made the design implementations necessary that we have stage two of the rocket, so to speak, and that’s for the pellet industry,” Gardner says. “We have set the system up so that we know when and where we need to pull the trigger. We can go to the next stage of our investment and put in the automated pellet storage.”

The Port of Eastport is the deepest natural seaport in the continental U.S., with a 65-foot berth during the lowest running tide. Its approach channels are all well over 100 feet deep, with no dredging. It’s also the easternmost port in the U.S., making it a prime candidate for European exports. “We have not done a good enough job of telling people who we are,” Gardner says.

In 2009, the pulp mill that represented the backbone of the Port of Eastport’s business was shut down, leaving a gaping hole in operations. “It really exposed the fact that the Port of Eastport was overleveraged, some would argue, in one singular customer, which is never a good business model,” Gardner says. The Port Authority Board realized it needed to make a choice: settle on the inevitable and die or invest in other assets and find a way forward, he says.

“We saw another opportunity. European interests would be screaming for fiber,” Gardner says. The East Coast of the U.S. lacked port automation, and Maine is the last place where forest touches the ocean, he explains. “It all seemed to add up and point to the same thing.”

And managers at the Port of Eastport weren’t the only ones to notice. “There are plans that people have been discussing quietly,” says Tony Wood, vice president of F.E. Wood & Sons, which has proposed a 312,000-metric-ton wood pellet plant that would export to Europe through another of Maine’s deepwater ports, the Port of Portland. “I wouldn’t be surprised if everything all happens at once in this area.”

Port Planning

It certainly seems as though everything is all happening at once, as the third Maine deepwater port, the Port of Searsport, also has invested in an expansion. George Soffron, CEO of Maine-based Corinth Wood Pellets LLC, knows that because Corinth plans to begin exporting this year through the mid-Maine port.

“Maine has great potential for export of pellets to Europe,” he says. “All three of these ports are underutilized for dry bulk product.”

Bulk commodities were common once out of the Northeast, Wood says, but most ports have transitioned more toward break bulk and liquid fuels. “So this is a positive direction, to go back toward bulk transportation, even though it’s a little different, it’s certainly something the ports have always been capable of doing.”

F.E. Wood & Sons, a fifth-generation sawmilling company that has no sawmills in operation currently, has built relationships over the years with many small private landowners. Those relationships will facilitate the supply of raw material for the company’s first pellet mill. “If you’ve been in the business for five generations, you have something a lot more valuable than a contract you can work off of,” Wood says. “Primarily, we’re building off our relationships.”

F.E. Wood & Sons’ port of choice, the Port of Portland, still needs the specialized infrastructure to handle wood pellets, such as storage and conveyors, and Wood says the company is in discussions to make that happen. “You do a lot better to make that up-front investment and put in equipment that’s going to handle your product well,” he says. All in all, the proposed pellet mill and port expansion are estimated to cost $80 million and are operating on a loose completion deadline of 2013.

Most ports are willing to work with new industries to expand their own capacities, Wood says. “It’s definitely a mantra for all the U.S. now to try new things in order to find that growth,” he explains, adding that wood pellet exports represent a promising industry. “The big barrier to entry is there isn’t infrastructure at the ports (in the Northeast) to do it currently, but the ports themselves aren’t extremely busy so they’re willing to try pretty much any new industry to drive business.”

Gardner says the pellet export industry is indeed attractive for Maine’s deepwater ports. “We think this would be a blossoming industry for the state of Maine and for the region,” Gardner says. “The Port of Eastport is positioning itself to be a marquee player.”

Eastport has the advantage of being a natural deepwater seaport, which brings down the expansion cost to around $8 million, eased even more by $6.5 million in state funding. But to expand a port that needs to rebuild dredge and berth, along with installing handling and storage infrastructure, costs will linger between $10 million and $25 million, according to Pete Stewart, president and CEO of Forest2Market. “You need a lot,” he says. “It’s not an insignificant amount of capital.”

Stewart adds that Maine does have a good port infrastructure, but the port must be near the source in order for an export business model to pencil out.

Rail Considerations

So, it would seem port infrastructure is still only a piece of the process, albeit a large one. To have a successful pellet exporting operation, transportation to the port is vital and rail access in Maine is currently limited. But improvements are on the way in that arena, too.

The site chosen for F.E. Wood & Sons’ pellet mill is 28 miles from the Port of Portland, with the Mountain Division rail line running directly between the two. While the state-owned rail line is deactivated, the state has slowly started the rehabilitation process with the pellet mill in mind. “It’s a great piece of support that the state of Maine has shown us,” Wood says. “They’re trying as hard as any government body ever does to give us some infrastructure to give us a competitive advantage.”
In the face of nationwide budget cuts, the state has managed to continue working with F.E. Wood & Sons to find funding for the rail rehabilitation, although progress has been slow and is still not etched in stone, much like the rest of the company’s multifaceted project.

“It’s a growing process,” Wood says. “I know the state supports businesses coming in like this, and this is a great way to put in infrastructure that’s been on their books, and has been sitting idle for 20 years, back to work to help western Maine grow some jobs.”

The Port of Eastport is hoping for a rail infrastructure upgrade, as well, having asked the state to fund such a project in 2009. While that funding was not granted, Gardner says the investment would be justified for a bulk commodities market that is set to explode.

The Port of Eastport has, in fact, never been connected by rail. “So the true potential in the deepest natural seaport, the easternmost seaport in the United States, is sitting here without rail investment,” Gardner laments. “It seems as though if rail investment were to be made anywhere, it would be a great chance for somebody to look at it.”

Gardner likened the scenario at Eastport to a shiny, beautiful brass nozzle with no hose. “So we work the hell out of that nozzle and can’t understand why we can’t get water out of it.” The smartest way to save the rail industry in Maine is to “handshake” it with the state’s ports, he insists. “We can effectively save both industries.”

Wood seems to agree. “There’s infrastructure that you can connect to make these things work,” he says. “It’s just a question of being able to get enough of the pieces to play together.

“The forest resources are here in Maine,” Wood adds. “The labor resources are here and there are certainly a lot of people with the expertise to put them together.”

A Clear Advantage

While a number of advantages for exports reside in the Northeast, and Maine in particular, raw material is much more expensive in the Northeast than in the Southeast, Stewart says, by between $4 and $6 per ton. “But they do have a shorter freight distance to Europe,” he says.

Freight costs from the Northeast to Europe are favorable over the Southeast by $4 per ton, increasing to $7 per ton from the Gulf Coast, Stewart cites. The Northeast has a $4-per-ton advantage over northern Brazil, too.

“So if a (Northeast) plant can get in a position where they have a favorable supplier, who can bring them the right material for a favorable price … they already have a freight advantage, so that would be a real value,” Stewart says.

Soffron believes a large part of the reason the Northeast hasn’t seen a push to enter the export market until recently is because of its strong domestic pellet market in residential heating. “I also think nobody really knew how,” he adds.

Wood says F.E. Wood & Sons is targeting the export market with its development plans to avoid the volatility of the seasonal residential market, and to take advantage of the stable business model the creditworthy European utilities can facilitate.

“We’re closer to Europe from a transportation standpoint than we are to the rest of the U.S.,” Soffron says of Maine. “I think we’ll see growth in the exporting business in general, but certainly we’ll see that from Maine.”

Author: Lisa Gibson
Editor, Biomass Power & Thermal
lgibson@bbiinternational.com
(701) 738-4952


press release
Jan. 5, 2012, 6:30 a.m. EST
ONTARIO WOOD PELLET PLANT TO BEGIN OPERATING SOON, AN INDUSTRIAL INFO NEWS ALERT

SUGAR LAND, TX, Jan 05, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- Canadian Biofuel's (CB) (Chatham, Ontario) wood fuel pellet plant in Springford, Ontario, is in the final stages of commissioning and should begin production in two weeks. Hailed as the largest plant of its kind in Ontario, CB's technology will convert purpose-grown crops into pellets and bricks that can be used for residential, industrial and agricultural heating.
For details, view the entire article by subscribing to Industrial Info's Premium Industry News at http://www.industrialinfo.com/showAbstract.jsp?newsitemID=193772&refer=marketwire , or browse other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.com .
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle(TM), provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. To contact an office in your area, visit the www.industrialinfo.com "Contact Us" page.



Contact:
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713-783-5147










VIRIDIS ENERGY BUYS ENLIGNA WOOD PELLET PLANT IN NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA
Moscow. Jan 09, 2012. /Lesprom Network/. Viridis Energy Inc. of Vancouver has purchased Enligna Canada Inc. wood pellet plant in Musquodoboit Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada. The purchase is subject to court approval because Enlinga Canada is in receivership. The plant has been closed since August, 2011, as ForestTalk reported.
The assets to be acquired include 20 buildings on four properties with a total of 157 acres and a separate 22 acre wood lot. The facilities houses five pellet presses with the capacity to produce 110,000 tonnes of wood pellets annually.
Viridis Energy is eager to take over the wood pellet plant. The company plans to return the plant to full capacity in April through June of this year.
Viridis Energy’s CFO Michele Rebiere said the company plans to being hiring as soon as all the necessary approvals are in order.
“We will bring in some people from our existing pellet production facility for their expertise, but will be looking to talk to all former employees of the pellet plant.” said Rebiere.
Rebiere said going into production in Nova Scotia gives their company excellent access to Europe where the demand for pellets is strong.
The plant employed about 60 people when it Enligna Canada was placed in receivership in August.
Viridis Energy Inc. is a publicly traded, "Cleantech" alternative energy company specializing in the agricultural and wood waste biomass.

CANADIAN PELLETS, NOT MAINE’S?
I was at a house yesterday where the residents were receiving fuel assistance from a community action program in the form of wood pellets. The pellets that were delivered were Canadian-made, even though we have at least two companies in the state that make them.
Way to go, whoever is in charge of this. Let’s send taxpayer money to Canada instead of helping out companies right here in our state. This is another example of the government fleecing the taxpayers. Way to go, Mr. LePage; you deserve a raise.
Eugene McCrossin


FIRST SHIPMENT OF ENVIVA’S WOOD PELLETS SENT TO EUROPEAN CUSTOMERS
Wood pellet production by Enviva in North Carolina moved a step forward as the first shipment of the product headed for European utility customers left the Chesapeake port recently.
On board the MV Daishin Maru, the shipment included 28,000 metric tons of the 6-centimeter pellets. Wood pellets are burned to produce energy or heat in Europe, the company's biggest market. They are made from sawdust, bark and wood chips that are byproducts of sawmilling, as well as branches and tree tops left over from logging.
"As the biomass industry matures and export volumes rise into the millions of tons per year, we will need to translate our focus on safety, quality, and reliability, to storage and terminalling operations," John Keppler, Enviva's chairman and chief executive officer, told the Tidewater News. "We expect Enviva’s Port of Chesapeake facility to be a flagship operation."
In December, the company purchased 120 acres for $1.3 million at the Turner Tract industrial park where Enviva plans to build a $75 million plant that will employ 64 workers.
The introduction of a new wood manufacturing plant could translate into more need for wood machinery and other high-end manufacturing equipment distributed by companies such as Stiles Machinery for use in the wood, metal and plastics industries.


January 9, 2012
ADVANCED BIO HEAT COMPANY ANNOUNCES BREAKTHROUGH
Becker Fireplace Center
Advanced Bio Heat Company has announced a new biomass heating system. We hear a lot about solar (high priced electricity and heating) along with wind (high price electricity) but hear little about the biomass hard fuel which is very low in price and available immediately with low investment for the end user. Advanced Bio Heat Company has developed a unique heating system—unavailable until now—in the United States. The U.S. has primarily marketed wood pellet boilers of various sizes and not developed the wood pellet forced air furnace above a typical 100,000 Btu’s. Advanced Bio Heat Company has developed, along with a large manufacturer, wood pellet furnaces in the 430,000 Btu to 850,000 Btu range. We offer the—unavailable until now—hot forced air along with the typical boiler furnaces. Our forced air furnaces range up to 850,000 Btu’s and our boiler furnaces up to 6.5 million Btu’s.
The Furnace
Advanced Bio Heat Company has been successful in working with a large national manufacturer of biomass furnaces to develop a strategic alliance for marketing the biomass furnaces. There has existed a large and mostly missed market for a 500,000-850,000 Btu/Hr. forced air furnace in the industry. There are many wood pellet boiler heating appliances, however they require heat ex-changers using hot water piping converted to forced air. What has been needed is a large forced air furnace capable of producing heated air volumes directly in the appliance and blown into the ducting. The primary purpose for development of the appliance manufacturer was for use in poultry and turkey barns. One of the outstanding in grower house problems is the lack of available forced hot air midrange furnaces. There are many markets such as military, water parks, greenhouses and many others looking for forced air furnaces in the large output ranges. We are excited about our future simply based on our ability to cut 50% to 60% off the typical LP gas heating bill with capital investment paybacks in less than 3 years.
Advanced Bio Heat Company has acquired the exclusive U.S. rights to the BioMax 430,000–850,000 Btu forced air heating furnaces manufactured by WoodMaster Manufacturing Company in Red Lake Falls, MN. Another extremely important aspect we looked at is the handling, delivery and storage of the wood pellet hard fuel. In the U.S. and Europe, the typical installation of any outdoor wood fuel feeding system is a large elevated steel storage tank similar to grain feed systems. We recognized immediately that this is a concern for potential clients. The wood pellets are less than 5% moisture and cannot stand any moisture. With elevated single storage tanks it is a very lengthy job to remove wet pellets in the event the fill cap is left open or blown open allowing moisture to enter the tank. The other concern has always been the collection of moisture condensing in the storage vessels in the fall and spring during weather extremes. The elevated approach limits the installation time to the season and also requires different construction trades such as concrete footing specialists, erection experts, wind age expected design engineers along with outside conveyor tubes and feeder motors installed in the field. The most prevalent problem comes from the special equipment needed to deliver and fill the elevated storage vessels. The owner needs to coordinate a delivery by special auger trucks, end dump trucks into special belly augers etc.
Universal Low Profile Feeder Hopper
Advanced Bio Heat Company has taken all the customer’s negatives and turned them into fuel storage and feeder positives. We have de-signed and built special low profile feeder hoppers capable of being delivered in modular form. Each module holds 8,000lbs of wood pellets and modules can be tandemed together to allow larger storage capacity. The modules are comprised of one ton in a small steel bin on the bottom along with a one ton super sack on the upper bin portion. This design allows for zero condensation problems and also offers an all-in-one feeder system that is merely a skid rail set in place, and is considered not permanent (tax purposes) and entirely movable by site personnel. In the event it is required to clean out the hopper feeder for any reason, simply remove the wing nut off the end lower piece at ground level and enter the hopper. The hoppers come complete with all necessary auger conveyors installed. One ton tote sacks can be delivered via conventional shipping trailers eliminating any need for special delivery trucks. The tote sacks can be stored in any covered space and when needed at various heat module locations can be handled by forklift or skidders including farm tractors with bucket forks commonly available at most locations. You will not have to guess or climb up the side of a 22’ elevated tank again. You simply drive by and see if the top tote sack is empty and replace, always knowing you have 4,000lbs in the lower bins.
The total installation paybacks are running under 3 years and are showing a 50% heating fuel cost savings yearly over propane. These units lend themselves well to shopping malls, large box stores and retail chain stores. The potential usage is unlimited, lending itself to replacing any LP or fuel oil appliances.
Biomass is one of the more historically stable fuels. For the past ten years woody biomass has remained very stable.
These units come as complete modular units that setup in hours. After setup nothing more is needed to produce up to 850,000 Btu’s of heat.
You can contact Advanced Bio Heat Company at 763-360-9465 or 763-262-0071 (Mr. Jim Eiynck). Or Email: heatcheap@hotmail.com


Posted: January 12
Updated: Today at 9:11 PM
GROWERS USING DIFFERING FORMS TO SAVE MONEY
By Mechele Cooper mcooper@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer
AUGUSTA -- Ken Ellis converted the heating in his 23 greenhouses from oil to wood pellets three years ago.
Maine Agricultural Trades Show: The show’s last day is today at the Augusta Civic Center. A complete program can be found at www.getrealmaine.com. Show hours are 9 a.m.-3 p.m. today. Free admission is offered.
The owner of Sunset Greenhouses in Fairfield said that while his consumption of pellets is still significant -- 172 tons a year -- his use of heating oil, which he uses only as a backup, has been dramatically reduced.
"I burned 35,000 gallons of No. 2 fuel oil and that's been cut down to 9,000 gallons," Ellis said. "My total fuel bill is below half."
At the Maine Agricultural Trades Show on Wednesday, Ellis joined a panel of Maine growers who have installed geothermal, wood and solar thermal heating systems. The three-day agricultural event at the Augusta Civic Center ends today.
Maine Rural Partners sponsored the program on renewable energy. The panel discussed energy assessments, on-site audits and financing options.
Ellis converted the hot-air furnaces in his greenhouses to burning wood pellets using the Pelix, a wood pellet burner popular in Europe. Ellis said a ton of pellets costs between $150 and $190.
Another member of the panel who owns a greenhouse in Thorndike installed solar panels to heat her germination tables with hot water.
Izzy Mckay of Half Moon Gardens said she grows between 60 and 70 pounds of mixed lettuce greens a week, which she sells mostly to school systems.
"It was important to keep a cash flow so I could pay my mortgage . . . so I worked on my energy costs," Mckay said. "I have great southerly exposure, so I looked into solar panels."
Her first attempt to qualify for a Rural Energy Development grant to help fund the project failed. She said the application process was too complicated.
She held up a thick notebook filled with pages of the application form she had to fill out.
"It was rejected for things like I didn't give copies in triplicate," and other frustrating issues, Mckay said. "Farm Energy Partners and Efficiency Maine helped the grant get completed. It was for $6,500 and it took 80 hours of work."
She said the cost of the total project was $28,000 and the grant only covered 25 percent of that.
"I'm considered a small business," she said. "There was this larger business (applying at the same time) and their grant application was only 18 pages. That left a bad taste in my mouth."
Claudia Lowd of Maine Rural Partners said the process has been made simpler for smaller operations.
"Rural Development is all over the state," Lowd said. "They actually will help you much more now.
"They know there's an issue with these grants. They take a lot of work. There's still these grants available, but they take 50 hours to write an application for $10,000."
Lowd said growers need to educate themselves on what's available in the way of financing and the different types of renewable energy.
She said the Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield has extended its course offerings in renewable energy.
The non-credit courses include solar heating, geothermal heating and cooling, biomass solid fuel, solar photovoltaic and small wind systems.
Dana Doran, director of the KVCC's energy programs, manned a booth at the show. He said for 15 years the college has offered solar photovoltaic and solar heating classes.
"This year, we're offering more for the general public, installers and designers," Doran said. "The first class starts the end of February. In the past the classes always sold out. That's because there's a tremendous amount of interest in the use of renewable energy to offset costs. There's more competition and the technology is more affordable."
Mechele Cooper -- 621-5663
mcooper@centralmaine.com

THE WORLD’S LARGEST WOOD PELLET-BASED BIOMASS POWER PLANT
RWE npower’s Tilbury, England facility, will be fully commissioned and producing electricity by the end of January, according to company officials.
The plant will generate nearly 750 MW of electricity using wood pellets produced at RWE’s Waycross, Ga. facility. The facility is currently running two of three biomass boilers, with the third set to be operational by the end of the month.
The facility has been using coal, but RWE npower plans to operate the facility exclusively on biomass by 2013. At 100% capacity, the plant will use roughly 2.5 million tons of wood pellets by the time the plant switches only to biomass. This switch would account for 10% of renewable energy output for the U.K. going into 2013, according to Dan Meredith, Corporate Public Relations Manager for RWE npower.
GERMAN PELLETS SETS UP ITALIAN SUBSIDIARY
11/01/2012

(SeeNews Renewables) - Jan 11, 2012 - Wood pellet producer German Pellets GmbH said today it had established a subsidiary in Italy, called German Pellets Italia, which will build and operate combined heat and power (CHP) plants for the production of electricity and heat from wood pellets in the northern part of the country.
The Italian subsidiary, which was set up together with an Italian partner, will benefit from the favourable framework conditions in the country which include an adequate feed-in tariffs for electricity from CHP plants, Pellets said.
The move is part of Pellets' expansion on the European market, the company's head, Peter Leibold, said.

Copyright 2012 SeeNews.
All Rights Reserved.
www.seenews.com | www.world.seenews.com; e-mail: editor@seenews.com.




VERSO PAPER COMPLETES MICH. BIOMASS CHP PROJECT
By Anna Austin | January 13, 2012
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Verso Paper has completed it's upgrades to a biomass CHP plant at its Quinnesec, Mich., pulp and paper mill.
PHOTO: VERSO PAPER CORP.





Verso Paper Corp. has finished a $45 million energy system upgrade at its Quinnesec, Mich., pulp and paper mill.
Located in the southeast corner of Dickinson County in northern Michigan, the 28 MW biomass cogeneration system is providing 95 percent of the mill’s required electricity.
Work on the project began in Oct. 2010, and included design upgrades to the mill’s existing combination boiler, a new turbine generator and a biomass handling system, which enable the mill to expand its capabilities to process residual wood such as tree tops, limbs and bark. The mill’s boiler will continue to burn black liquor, according to Verso.
The company estimates that the upgrades will reduce the mill’s annual energy costs by $7 million, and create a revenue stream through the sale of renewable energy credits.
In addition to the Quinnesec project, Verso has another biomass energy system upgrade in the works. In Dec. 2010, the company broke ground on a $40 million combined-heat-and-power (CHP) project to modify a boiler at its Bucksport, Maine, Mill that will reduce the equipment’s fossil fuel use by 80 percent, replacing coal and tire-derived fuel with wood waste. Verso expects the project to be complete early this year.




Alternative Energy
January 12
ME GREENHOUSES SWITCHED FROM OIL TO WOOD PELLETS THREE YEARS AGO, SAVING MONEY
By Mechele Cooper mcooper@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer
AUGUSTA -- Ken Ellis converted the heating in his 23 greenhouses from oil to wood pellets three years ago.
Maine Agricultural Trades Show: The show’s last day is today at the Augusta Civic Center. A complete program can be found at www.getrealmaine.com. Show hours are 9 a.m.-3 p.m. today. Free admission is offered.
The owner of Sunset Greenhouses in Fairfield said that while his consumption of pellets is still significant -- 172 tons a year -- his use of heating oil, which he uses only as a backup, has been dramatically reduced.
"I burned 35,000 gallons of No. 2 fuel oil and that's been cut down to 9,000 gallons," Ellis said. "My total fuel bill is below half."
At the Maine Agricultural Trades Show on Wednesday, Ellis joined a panel of Maine growers who have installed geothermal, wood and solar thermal heating systems. The three-day agricultural event at the Augusta Civic Center ends today.
Maine Rural Partners sponsored the program on renewable energy. The panel discussed energy assessments, on-site audits and financing options.
Ellis converted the hot-air furnaces in his greenhouses to burning wood pellets using the Pelix, a wood pellet burner popular in Europe. Ellis said a ton of pellets costs between $150 and $190.
Another member of the panel who owns a greenhouse in Thorndike installed solar panels to heat her germination tables with hot water.
Izzy Mckay of Half Moon Gardens said she grows between 60 and 70 pounds of mixed lettuce greens a week, which she sells mostly to school systems.
"It was important to keep a cash flow so I could pay my mortgage . . . so I worked on my energy costs," Mckay said. "I have great southerly exposure, so I looked into solar panels."
Her first attempt to qualify for a Rural Energy Development grant to help fund the project failed. She said the application process was too complicated.
She held up a thick notebook filled with pages of the application form she had to fill out.
"It was rejected for things like I didn't give copies in triplicate," and other frustrating issues, Mckay said. "Farm Energy Partners and Efficiency Maine helped the grant get completed. It was for $6,500 and it took 80 hours of work."
She said the cost of the total project was $28,000 and the grant only covered 25 percent of that.
"I'm considered a small business," she said. "There was this larger business (applying at the same time) and their grant application was only 18 pages. That left a bad taste in my mouth."
Claudia Lowd of Maine Rural Partners said the process has been made simpler for smaller operations.
"Rural Development is all over the state," Lowd said. "They actually will help you much more now.
"They know there's an issue with these grants. They take a lot of work. There's still these grants available, but they take 50 hours to write an application for $10,000."
Lowd said growers need to educate themselves on what's available in the way of financing and the different types of renewable energy.
She said the Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield has extended its course offerings in renewable energy.
The non-credit courses include solar heating, geothermal heating and cooling, biomass solid fuel, solar photovoltaic and small wind systems.
Dana Doran, director of the KVCC's energy programs, manned a booth at the show. He said for 15 years the college has offered solar photovoltaic and solar heating classes.
"This year, we're offering more for the general public, installers and designers," Doran said. "The first class starts the end of February. In the past the classes always sold out. That's because there's a tremendous amount of interest in the use of renewable energy to offset costs. There's more competition and the technology is more affordable."
Mechele Cooper -- 621-5663
mcooper@centralmaine.com
AGENCY APPROVED FOR WOOD PELLET CERTIFICATION
January 17, 2012 | By Brae Canlen
The American Lumber Standard Committee (ALSC) has announced that Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau will serve as a third-party auditing agency of the Pellet Fuels Institute's (PFI) densified wood pellet monitoring and labeling program, as administered by the ALSC.
Manufacturers of PFI-graded pellet fuels will be allowed to place labels on their packaging that assure consumers and retailers that the pellets meet the new standards. In order to use the PFI certification label, manufacturers must adhere to the PFI standard, which includes third-party mill inspections by an ALSC-accredited inspection agency as a part of the compliance procedure.
According to the PFI, at least 27 companies representing 41 pellet manufacturing mills have pledged to support the PFI standards program. PFI's membership includes approximately 60% of the pellet mills operating in the United States, according to PFI.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which will finalize its own regulations for residential wood heaters later this year, is expected to adopt the PFI standard for wood pellets.
E.ON TO CONVERT UK COAL PLANT TO BIOMASS
Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:43am EST
LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - German utility E.ON plans to convert one of two 500 megawatt units at its coal-fired Ironbridge power plant in Britain to use biomass and may decide to convert the second unit as well, the company said on Wednesday.
The modernised unit will start operating in early 2013 to produce electricity using wood pellets but will keep the ability to burn coal for up to 20 percent of its capacity.
Despite the modernisation, the Ironbridge power plant will have to shut down by the end of 2015 under EU-wide regulation that bans highly polluting power plants, called the Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD).
"This conversion will enable us to secure a level of employment at the site until the end of 2015 as well as deliver a significant reduction in the amount of CO2 emitted by the plant," Tim Forrest, director of biomass at E.ON, said.
The utility on Wednesday applied for the construction of a fuel store on the Ironbridge site, which could hold enough supply to power both units with biomass, a spokesman said.
The wood pellets used in the new plant will come from North America.
E.ON follows in the footsteps of rival RWE npower, which will this month open its own biomass converted coal plant at Tilbury in Essex.
RWE npower's plant is also due to shut down by the end of 2015 under the LCPD legislation.


GLOBAL WOOD PELLET PRODUCTION EXCEEDS CONSUMPTION
During the last two years, global wood pellet production increased from about nine million tonnes to some 15–16 million tonnes, while apparent consumption expanded from about nine million to 13 million tonnes.

In 2010, estimated global wood pellet production exceeded estimated consumption by about two to three million tonnes, while global pellet production capacity exceeded consumption by around seven to eight million tonnes (including new production facilities under construction but not operating).

Excess production capacity has meant that, on a global average, pellet mills have operated at only about 62%–65% of capacity. Of course, mill closures and production curtailments have not been experienced equally by all producing countries. Central Europe (Germany and Austria) has been especially hard hit during the last few years.

In 2009, it was estimated that actual European pellet production equaled about 60% of production capacity — of which Germany was the hardest hit, operating at only 54% of capacity. Incredibly, even with all this excess pellet production capacity and recent pellet mill closures and curtailments, new production plants in Europe still emerged at about one-half of the global expansion rate, moving from about 8.3 million tonnes to 10.1 million tonnes of capacity between 2008 and 2010 (+10.8% per year).

North American production capacity grew from about 4.2 million tonnes in 2008 to about 6.7 million tonnes in 2010 (+30%/year) — almost triple the growth rate of European production capacity. Canadian capacity grew from 2.1 million tonnes in 2008 to about three million tonnes in 2010 (+21%/year), while U.S. capacity increased from about 1.75 million tonnes to ~3.7 million tonnes (+55%/year) in 2010.

Source: International Wood Markets Group, www.woodmarkets.com


January 19, 2012
WOOD-PELLET SYSTEM GETS TOP MARKS
DENISE A. RAYMO Press-Republican
MALONE — Using wood pellets instead of fuel oil as its primary heating source has saved Malone Middle School between $8,000 and $11,000 so far this winter.
Since the system went online Nov. 27, 2011, the school has spent $3,700 on wood pellets at $185 a ton, compared to 3,800 to 5,000 gallons of fuel oil at $3 a gallon, said David Brooks, superintendent of buildings and grounds for the Malone Central School District.
More efficient fuel-oil boilers are still used as a backup to the pellets, but the building had used only about 30 gallons this season as of Jan. 9, he said.
OPEN HOUSE
Residents interested in learning more about the heating system and other upgrades that are part of the district's $29.2 million capital-improvement project are invited to an open house from 10 a.m. to noon at the Middle School on Saturday.
Tours will highlight the new classrooms, library-media center, education-technology area and the refurbished gymnasium.
MORE SAVINGS
A $289,000 grant paid for the new heating system, and the district was required to pay a $96,000 local share.
The funding, awarded in 2010, came from the New York State Energy and Research Development Agency as part of federal stimulus money.
But Brooks said the local contribution, coupled with projected fuel-cost savings, means the entire system will likely pay for itself in less than 18 months.
Within that same timeframe, Enbridge-St. Lawrence Gas is expected to have its natural-gas pipeline operational, and the School District wants to be one of its anchor customers.
Brooks said the oil-fired boilers can easily be converted to natural gas, which is expected to bring even more savings.
REGULATED BURN
He also said the wood boilers do not add pollution since they are designed with a baffled flue that captures virtually all of the heat produced as it moves through the system to the smokestack.
"I've been watching, and it has more of a steam look instead of a smoke look, and there is very little of it," Brooks said.
"Our smokestack is four stories high, so there are very little emissions coming out of it."
He said the pellets put out 165-to-170-degree heat and are carefully regulated to burn efficiently.
Once the boilers reach their temperature setting, the system scales itself back to a slow pellet burn until it is triggered to start again to provide heat.
On especially cold days, the oil burners kick on to provide any additional heat needed, Brooks said.
ASH USEFUL, TOO
Another way the school was able to keep its costs down was to retrofit its existing coal-storage bin into a pellet-storage bin instead of constructing a silo or separate building, as other school districts have done.
The pellet-feeding system has a sloped floor and an auger device that pulls the product into a series of two hoppers, where a long, sweeping arm automatically drops the pellets into a 2-cubic-foot box before the needed amount is fed into the fire.
Brooks said the end-product ash is being looked at as a possible source of nutrients for the district's athletic fields, grassy areas and gardens.
It has already been used as an alternative to salt and sand to give more traction to buses on icy school grounds, he said.
Email Denise A. Raymo at;draymo@pressrepuiblican.com
GREEN ENERGY PLANT TO BRING HUNDREDS OF JOBS TO HULL

HUNDREDS of jobs are to be created by a green energy plant that will bring £130 million worth of investment into Hull.
Real Ventures has unveiled its plans to build a wood-burning power station on an eight-acre site at Queen Elizabeth Dock over the next three years.
1.
THREE-YEAR PROJECT: The site (marked in red) on Queen Elizabeth Dock where the proposed wood-burning power plant will be built.
The company, which has the backing of Associated British Ports (ABP), is to create 250 jobs in the construction of the plant, which will burn virgin wood pellets to create electricity.
A further 35 permanent jobs will be created when the plant is scheduled to open in 2015.
Most jobs will be guaranteed for people living in East Yorkshire, the company has said.
Work is under way to prepare a planning application, which should be presented to Hull City Council in April.
It is hoped that its twin plant, planned for Immingham, will receive planning permission from North East Lincolnshire Council at the same time.
It is scheduled to open in April 2014 – a year ahead of the Hull development.
Mike Hammond, director of Real Ventures, said: "I believe the plant will add credibility to Hull's aims of being a renewable energy centre.
"But the most important benefit I think it will bring to Hull is jobs. It may not be many jobs, but they will be good jobs and they are jobs that will last."
Mr Hammond and his fellow directors Ray Tucker and John Gallimore happened upon the idea of building a plant in Hull when Danish firm Dong Energy's plans collapsed just over a year ago for "strategic reasons".
Funds for Real Ventures' project are not guaranteed, as essential Government subsidies for green energy projects cannot be awarded until planning permission has been gained. The company is also seeking investment from bankers.
However, the Isle Of Wight-based trio are confident their plan will go ahead.
Mr Hammond said: "We believe in what we are doing and we are committed to doing it."
Equipment for the plant has a life span of 25 years, but it is hoped the scheme will operate for many more years than that.
Councillor Steven Bayes, portfolio holder for economic regeneration and employment, said: "The proposed investment by Real Ventures further reinforces Hull's position at the forefront of the low-carbon economy.
"Hull is rapidly developing as both an offshore and green energy hub and we will offer all assistance to try to make this project a reality to the mutual advantage of the company and the Hull city region."
Last October, Hull City Council’s planning committee gave the go-ahead for Energy Works, a £150m renewable energy power plant on the east bank of the River Hull. The development by Hull-based Spencer Group would convert household waste into green energy.
Using advanced technologies, it would be the first facility of its kind in the UK. Spencer Group is seeking £20m from the European Regional Development Fund to support the development.





EAST TEXAS PLANT TO CREATE WOOD PELLET FUEL FOR THE EUROPEAN MARKET
Texas has been known as a center for energy production for decades, ranging from old fashioned oil and gas to the relatively new technology of wind farms. A piece in the Beaumont Enterprise suggests Texas is also a source for a form of biomass fuel.
That fuel is called wood pellets, which are burned in place of coal. A company called German Pellets is proposing to exploit wood pellets milled in East Texas for the European market.
What are wood pellets?
According to the Pellet Fuels Institute, wood pellets are made from recycled wood waste creating in timber mills. The pellets are refined into small, universally shapes about the size of pencils. These pellets have the same amount of energy and have less moisture than does raw wood waste, thus making them better suited for fuel. They can be transported and store easier than raw wood. Pellets are used for home heating operations and for large, commercial boilers. Wood pellets are said to generate less greenhouse gasses than does coal or oil and is a renewable resource.
What is German Pellets?
German Pellets is a company founded in Mecklenberg, Germany in 2005. It operates 14 wood pellet manufacturing plants in Europe supplying several hundred thousand homes with fuel for heating. The East Texas plant will be its first venture in the United States.
What about the East Texas operation?
German Pellets is making a $100 million investment in an existing plant once operated by North American Procurement Co. just south of the town of Woodville. The plant, when it is operational in early 2013, will manufacture 500 thousand metric tons of wood pellets per year. Current European demand is 11 metric tons a year, but is expected to increase to between 15 million and 25 million metric tons a year by 2020.
Are there other wood pellet operations in Texas?
A Houston based company called Zilkha Biomass Fuels in manufacturing a product called black pellets. Black pellets are produced by compressing the wood and drying out the moisture content as much as possible. The process increases energy density and decreases transportation costs. Black pellets are also impervious to dust and rain, unlike conventional wood pellets, and thus can even be store outdoors. Black pellets can also be burned in former coal fired plants with a minimum of modifications. Zilkha has a plant in Crocket, Texas that has been manufacturing black pellets since 2010.

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES COULD GET 60,000 TON/YEAR WOOD PELLET MILL
Jan. 30, 2012
Northwest Territories could get 60,000 ton/year wood pellet mill
ENTERPRISE, NT, Jan. 30, 2012 (Local News) - It's not a sure thing yet, but it seems a proposed wood pellet manufacturing plant has a good chance of being located in Enterprise.
Brad Mapes, the Hay River businessman behind the idea, appeared at a Jan. 23 public meeting in the hamlet.
"I'm not going to lie to you," he told the 26 community residents gathered for the meeting. "I definitely would like to see the plant in Enterprise."