A coalition of organizations is calling for 25% of the thermal load in the northeastern US to come from renewables by 2025, with 18.5% from biomass. The coalition published the results of study that shows the availability of biomass stock and the technology to meet this aggressive target.
The 40-page study, “Heating the Northeast with Renewable Biomass: A vision for 2025” also provides an economic impact analysis and shows locally produced biomass will create as many as 140,216 permanent jobs and save 1.14 billion gallons of oil annually.
Besides the economic benefits, the environmental gains of achieving this vision are considerable. The viability of forest and farm ownership will be improved and emissions of sulfur and mercury will be significantly lowered. This can improve the quality of the air we breathe, and reduce acid rain and the Green House effect. Additionally, this goal would encourage entrepreneurs to invest in even cleaner technologies and will accelerate the pace of innovation in wood burning and other renewable technologies.
The document sets objectives in terms of efficiency, affordability, sustainability, security, low emissions and climate change mitigation. These objectives are then connected with policy recommendations. The key action points encompass the incorporation of thermal biomass in energy policy in the six NE states and NY.
In the short term, working groups will be established and individuals and organizations will be meeting with their federal and state legislators.
The study was released at the Heating the North East conference on April 28 in Manchester, NH. The five organizations in the coalition are the Alliance for Green Heat, The Biomass Thermal Energy Council, Maine Pellet Fuel Association, New York Biomass Energy Alliance and the Pellet Fuel Institute.
The full document of the vision is available here and if you have any suggestions of other ideas, please contact the Alliance for Green Heat or the Biomass Thermal Energy Council.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Outdoor Wood Boiler Hearings
The Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed regulations for outdoor wood boilers and will be holding 11 public information sessions/hearings throughout the state in June.
DEC will conduct a public information session for one hour prior to each of the public hearings listed below.
During these sessions, DEC staff will entertain questions from the public concerning the proposed rulemaking. Each public information session will commence at 5:00 p.m. and end at 6:00 p.m.
These sessions are intended to be informal and will not be part of the official hearing record. Any comments that the public wishes to be included in the record should be submitted during the official public hearing.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
Dulles State Office Building, 1st Floor Auditorium, 317 Washington Street, Watertown, N.Y.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
NYSDEC-Region 1, SUNY @ Stony Brook, 50 Circle Road, Stony Brook, N.Y.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
NYSDEC Central Office, 625 Broadway, Public Assembly Room 129, Albany, N.Y.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
Rockland County Fire Training Center, 35 FiremanÕs Memorial Drive, Pomona, N.Y.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð6:00 p.m.
Herkimer County Community College, Robert McLaughlin College Center, Hummel Corporate Center, 100 Reservoir Road, Herkimer, N.Y.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
Genesee Community College, College Drive, Conable Technology Building, Room T102, Batavia, N.Y.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
Cortland County Office Building, 2nd Floor Auditorium, 60 Central Avenue, Cortland, N.Y.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
Allegany County Office Building, Legislative Board Chambers, 7 Court Street, Belmont, N.Y.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð6:00 p.m.
Jamestown Community College, Training Center, Room 117, 10785 Bennett Road (Route 60), Dunkirk, N.Y.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð6:00 p.m.
Norrie Point Environmental Center, Margaret Lewis Norrie State Park, 256 Norrie Point Way, Staatsburg, N.Y.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
Harrietstown Town Hall, 39 Main Street, Saranac Lake, N.Y.
DEC will conduct a public information session for one hour prior to each of the public hearings listed below.
During these sessions, DEC staff will entertain questions from the public concerning the proposed rulemaking. Each public information session will commence at 5:00 p.m. and end at 6:00 p.m.
These sessions are intended to be informal and will not be part of the official hearing record. Any comments that the public wishes to be included in the record should be submitted during the official public hearing.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
Dulles State Office Building, 1st Floor Auditorium, 317 Washington Street, Watertown, N.Y.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
NYSDEC-Region 1, SUNY @ Stony Brook, 50 Circle Road, Stony Brook, N.Y.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
NYSDEC Central Office, 625 Broadway, Public Assembly Room 129, Albany, N.Y.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
Rockland County Fire Training Center, 35 FiremanÕs Memorial Drive, Pomona, N.Y.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð6:00 p.m.
Herkimer County Community College, Robert McLaughlin College Center, Hummel Corporate Center, 100 Reservoir Road, Herkimer, N.Y.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
Genesee Community College, College Drive, Conable Technology Building, Room T102, Batavia, N.Y.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
Cortland County Office Building, 2nd Floor Auditorium, 60 Central Avenue, Cortland, N.Y.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
Allegany County Office Building, Legislative Board Chambers, 7 Court Street, Belmont, N.Y.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð6:00 p.m.
Jamestown Community College, Training Center, Room 117, 10785 Bennett Road (Route 60), Dunkirk, N.Y.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð6:00 p.m.
Norrie Point Environmental Center, Margaret Lewis Norrie State Park, 256 Norrie Point Way, Staatsburg, N.Y.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Public Hearing: 6:00 p.m. Ð 8:00 p.m.
Information Session: 5:00 p.m. Ð 6:00 p.m.
Harrietstown Town Hall, 39 Main Street, Saranac Lake, N.Y.
House Passes Home Star
By a vote of 246 to 161 the House of Representatives today voted to approve the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010 (H.R. 5019), which authorizes creation of a national energy retrofit program for American homeowners. The vote marks a significant milestone in the progress of the bipartisan HOME STAR legislation, although it's important to note that the authorization bill passed today must be matched by the Senate, and followed up with an appropriation bill to allocate funds for the $6 billion program.
Introduced by Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont, Home Star will provide rebates on energy efficiency measures, including high efficiency biomass heaters. It will provide $1,000 point of sale rebate for biomass stoves and boilers that meet 75% of the homes heating needs. A lower $500 rebate will be available for smaller wood or pellet stoves for space heating and do not have ability to heat most of the home. For both levels of rebates, wood stoves are required to replace an existing wood stove, making this bill the first national wood stove change-out bill.
Home Star will also be the first national rebate program for biomass appliances ever and it establishes a strict emission threshold of 3 grams an hour both wood and pellet stoves, well below the EPA’s 7.5 grams per hour limit.
The biomass provisions were subject to intensive debates and negotiations around a number of points, including whether rebates for pellet stoves would also only be available for people who currently owned a wood or pellet stove. The Alliance for Green Heat, which has been advising the bill’s drafters from the start set aside our advisory role and aggressively tried to convince all stakeholders that pellet stoves should be available to first time buyers. Several environmental groups who were integral to the coalition were hesitant but a last minute agreement was reached. American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) played a vital mediating role through the entire process to ensure standards for biomass appliances paralleled the requirements for high efficiency oil and gas furnaces.
“We were lucky that Congressman Welch from Vermont was the primary sponsor of this bill because he understands the benefits and potential of wood pellet heating, but his office and ours wanted consensus among the major groups involved in designing and supporting Home Star,” said John Ackerly, President of the Alliance for Green Heat. (By chance, one of the primary architects of Home Star, Steve Cowell, CEO of the Conservation Services Group, heats his home with pellets.)
The moderate efficiency and emissions thresholds for boilers in Home Star became an area of contention very late in the game on the House side. In response to questions from Congressional staff, EPA recommended that Congress raise the efficiency threshold to 90% at the lower heating value. Efficiency and emissions standards for indoor boilers are extremely difficult to establish because the EPA has never regulated them and it has always been unclear where those thresholds should be. A report released in the last week of April by NYSERDA that was prepared by the Austrian group Bioenergy2020+ presents compelling data that residential boilers can be extremely clean and efficient and an 85% threshold at the lower heating value could have been used in Home Star
As it stands now, in both the House and Senate bills, boilers must be 80% efficient at the lower heating value (LHV) as accredited by an independent laboratory recognized by the EPA, unlike the federal 30% tax credit. An 80% LHV threshold would allow seven of the twelve Phase 2 qualified hydronic heaters to be eligible, including 4 that use stick wood and 3 that use pellets. While this establishes an even higher bar that Phase 2 alone, it also does permit the rebate to go to Phase 2 boilers that will be installed in states that have no set-back or stack height limits for hydronic heaters.
Equally important to the efficiency threshold, is what test is allowed to establish efficiency. Home Star almost required all boilers to be tested using Method 28, which was developed for outdoor hydronic heaters that are designed to cycle on and off and burn at lower tempuratures. The cleanest indoor boilers are designed to run at high tempuratures and do not necessarily perform well if they have to use a test designed by hydronic heaters.
The emissions limits for stoves had been set at 4.5 grams per hour for wood and 2.5 grams per hour for pellets, but at the initiative of a Congressional office, it was dropped to 3.0 for both wood and pellets, making a ground breaking standard for wood but almost a status quo standard for pellets.
One significant implication of the 3.0 gram per hour for a wood stove to replace an existing wood stove, is that to get the full $1,000 rebate, it must be able to meet 75% of the homes heating needs. In general, this requirement will favor smaller homes and larger stoves. For larger stoves to be under 3.0 grams an hour they will be more likely to be catalytic models, which may help begin a process of rejuvenating the catalytic stove lines that may continue under the revised EPA standards.
Introduced by Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont, Home Star will provide rebates on energy efficiency measures, including high efficiency biomass heaters. It will provide $1,000 point of sale rebate for biomass stoves and boilers that meet 75% of the homes heating needs. A lower $500 rebate will be available for smaller wood or pellet stoves for space heating and do not have ability to heat most of the home. For both levels of rebates, wood stoves are required to replace an existing wood stove, making this bill the first national wood stove change-out bill.
Home Star will also be the first national rebate program for biomass appliances ever and it establishes a strict emission threshold of 3 grams an hour both wood and pellet stoves, well below the EPA’s 7.5 grams per hour limit.
The biomass provisions were subject to intensive debates and negotiations around a number of points, including whether rebates for pellet stoves would also only be available for people who currently owned a wood or pellet stove. The Alliance for Green Heat, which has been advising the bill’s drafters from the start set aside our advisory role and aggressively tried to convince all stakeholders that pellet stoves should be available to first time buyers. Several environmental groups who were integral to the coalition were hesitant but a last minute agreement was reached. American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) played a vital mediating role through the entire process to ensure standards for biomass appliances paralleled the requirements for high efficiency oil and gas furnaces.
“We were lucky that Congressman Welch from Vermont was the primary sponsor of this bill because he understands the benefits and potential of wood pellet heating, but his office and ours wanted consensus among the major groups involved in designing and supporting Home Star,” said John Ackerly, President of the Alliance for Green Heat. (By chance, one of the primary architects of Home Star, Steve Cowell, CEO of the Conservation Services Group, heats his home with pellets.)
The moderate efficiency and emissions thresholds for boilers in Home Star became an area of contention very late in the game on the House side. In response to questions from Congressional staff, EPA recommended that Congress raise the efficiency threshold to 90% at the lower heating value. Efficiency and emissions standards for indoor boilers are extremely difficult to establish because the EPA has never regulated them and it has always been unclear where those thresholds should be. A report released in the last week of April by NYSERDA that was prepared by the Austrian group Bioenergy2020+ presents compelling data that residential boilers can be extremely clean and efficient and an 85% threshold at the lower heating value could have been used in Home Star
As it stands now, in both the House and Senate bills, boilers must be 80% efficient at the lower heating value (LHV) as accredited by an independent laboratory recognized by the EPA, unlike the federal 30% tax credit. An 80% LHV threshold would allow seven of the twelve Phase 2 qualified hydronic heaters to be eligible, including 4 that use stick wood and 3 that use pellets. While this establishes an even higher bar that Phase 2 alone, it also does permit the rebate to go to Phase 2 boilers that will be installed in states that have no set-back or stack height limits for hydronic heaters.
Equally important to the efficiency threshold, is what test is allowed to establish efficiency. Home Star almost required all boilers to be tested using Method 28, which was developed for outdoor hydronic heaters that are designed to cycle on and off and burn at lower tempuratures. The cleanest indoor boilers are designed to run at high tempuratures and do not necessarily perform well if they have to use a test designed by hydronic heaters.
The emissions limits for stoves had been set at 4.5 grams per hour for wood and 2.5 grams per hour for pellets, but at the initiative of a Congressional office, it was dropped to 3.0 for both wood and pellets, making a ground breaking standard for wood but almost a status quo standard for pellets.
One significant implication of the 3.0 gram per hour for a wood stove to replace an existing wood stove, is that to get the full $1,000 rebate, it must be able to meet 75% of the homes heating needs. In general, this requirement will favor smaller homes and larger stoves. For larger stoves to be under 3.0 grams an hour they will be more likely to be catalytic models, which may help begin a process of rejuvenating the catalytic stove lines that may continue under the revised EPA standards.
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