Haines is one of just two Alaska communities to be awarded large wood-innovation grants from the U.S. Forest Service. The other is the Hydaburg School District.
The Haines Borough will get $250,000 to use toward expanding a wood energy, or biomass, heating system.
According to a Forest Service release, 77 applications were received nationwide with 42 grants awarded after a competitive process.
The quarter-million-dollar boost will go toward the design of a wood-fueled district system that could eventually heat the school, pool and other public facilities.
The project would potentially help the borough go from burning of 80,000 gallons of heating fuel per year, and save as much as $3 million over the life of the project, according to the release. Other local benefits of biomass, according the Service, is the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of nearly 1.8 million pounds per year.
The borough acquired three refurbished Coast Guard boilers late last year as part of the project. The systems use pellets or wood chips to fuel boilers as an earth-friendly, locally sustainable alternative, or addition, to oil-burning furnaces.
The borough also got a $1.3 million-grant from the Alaska Energy Authority’s Renewable Energy Fund to move forward with the project.
The total cost of the Haines biomass project is an estimated $1.5 million.
The Hydaburg School District was awarded $150,000 from the Forest Service for the design of a cordwood-fueled heating system that will provide heat to the school buildings and greenhouse.
The Hydaburg School Wood Biomass Project will replace old diesel-burning boilers with cordwood-fired boilers, as well as heat a greenhouse that will provide fresh, nutritious vegetables for the school lunch program.
These locations have tons of wood, with no other market, laying on the ground after harvest. This is a great idea and is totally appropriate to utilize local resources for energy with boilers that don’t emit particulates. Pluses include local employment, local economic development, carbon neutral energy located where forest regeneration is absolutely no problem, savings from expensive transport of non-renewable energy sources (diesel fuel). Making sure the boilers operate correctly and are appropriate to the fuel sources and moistures is also key to success. Great idea appropriately located.
This is an absolutely great idea. Modern wood boilers with bag houses have very low particulate emissions. Low enough that there is no visible emission and no community health impact. Also, uses local labor to supply jobs.
This is so depressing. There is nothing “earth-friendly” or “sustainable” about this. Wood incineration is an extremely polluting method of heating and energy generation. Any potential savings by the Haines Borough or the Hydaburg School District will be subsidized by people in the community whose medical bills are going to increase. There will be more children with asthma and other lung diseases, and there will be more adults with lung and cardiac diseases. Heart attacks are pretty expensive! Perhaps you could balance this glowing coverage with a review of the scientific literature on the dangers of increased particulate pollution? Wood may be natural, but so is tobacco. Just because something comes from a tree doesn’t mean it’s healthy. No amount of vegetables from the greenhouse is going to make up for the harm this is going to inflict on the children in the Hydaburg district.
Tidal energy production would be better. Don’t have to cut down the carbon absorbing forest or burn pellets releasing carbon pollution in the atmosphere. Why hasn’t Alaska invested in tidal energy projects like Nova Scotia? We’ve got the same huge tides and a lot more potential than any other state. Free energy with a little innovation as long as the moon rolls across the sky. Possibly due to the extractive resource mindset of our state legislaters and politicians who mind their petroleum industry bosses.