Feasibility of operating a 50-MW wood-fired power plant in northern Vermont: wood availabiity and siting potential. Executive summary

Technical Report · Thu Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1978

OSTI ID:5715706

Hewett, C E; High, C J

The study was undertaken to: (1) ascertain the biological and institutional availability of wood for a 50-MW wood-fired power plant in Vermont, and (2) choose and evaluate a repesentative list of towns potentially suitable as locations for a plant of this description. To determine if the woodlands of northern Vermont could provide enough material to fuel a 50-MW power plant, the quantity of wood in the forest measured in both round-wood and whole-tree terms, the physical and economic accessibility of the forested land, and the willingness of landowners to allow the harvest of low-quality wood on their property were considered. It is mainly concluded that if all the wood on all commercial forest lands could be cut using whole-tree harvesting methods, and if the standing crop of rough and rotten timber were liquidated over the 20-year amortization period, then the region could sustain the removal of 252 million cubic feet of wood fiber annually, in addition to what is already being harvested. In evaluating sites for the plants, 11 towns were evaluated and classified as: good potential (5); moderate potential (3); and provisionally classified (3). It is mainly concluded that there are towns in northern Vermont that are suitable locations for the plant, but in none of the towns is there a market for the cogenerated steam. (MCW)

• Research Organization: Dartmouth Coll., Hanover, NH (USA). Thayer School of Engineering
• OSTI ID: 5715706
• Report Number(s): DSD-116
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290800 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Heat Utilization-- (1980-)
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CO-GENERATION
COMPETITION
COST
DEUS
ECONOMICS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
EVALUATION
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
MARKET
NORTH AMERICA
NORTH ATLANTIC REGION
OPERATION
POWER GENERATION
POWER PLANTS
PRICES
REFUSE-FUELED POWER PLANTS
SITE SELECTION
STEAM
STEAM GENERATION
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
USA
VERMONT
WOOD