This post comes to us thanks to the beauty of the internet. Traditionally unable to listen Vermont Public Radio (VPR) here in Washington, the internet now makes such once far-out ideas commonplace. The link above takes you to several audio clips from VPR. This link has a story about the capital city of Montpelier using wood chips to heat and help power the State Capitol and 175 other buildings in town. The energy system will be “fueled with locally sourced renewable and sustainably harvested wood chips.” After 15 years on the drawing board, $8 million in federal stimulus money finally got the project off the ground. Guests on the program include Montpelier City Manager Bill Fraser and Executive Director of the Montpelier based Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC) Chris Recchia. BERC is an “independent, national nonprofit organization (with another office in Madison, Wisconsin) that assists communities, colleges and universities, state and local governments, businesses, utilities, schools, and others in making the most of their local energy resources.”

The Montpelier Renewable Community Energy Project will make renewable thermal energy available to every building in downtown Montpelier including city buildings, privately owned properties, the Vermont State Capitol and 15 other state-owned office buildings. It will improve the environment by converting some of the oldest and least efficient building heating equipment in the City to central heat production from new, state-of-the-art high-efficiency renewable energy boilers. The project will be implemented by an innovative public-private partnership involving state and local government, local businesses and property owners, and the expertise of a nationally recognized community-scale biomass organization and a sophisticated global district energy firm.

Vermont Biofuels is also a good resource for information on biofuels in general. The project in Vermont shows that we need a combination of factors – not just renewables or merely improving efficiency or increasing conservation but a suite of actions – to be implemented together. In this case, the high-efficiency boilers are key; so is using wood chips from local and sustainably harvested sources. Put all the pieces together and they add up to real cost, energy, and greenhouse gas savings.