Woodburning up in smoke

Journal Article · · Am. For.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5720642

Clifton, M

Built to incite Vermont wood lot owners to weed out their holdings and to provide a cost-effective alternative to oil, the McNeil woodburning electrical generating station in Burlington, Vermont, hasn't quite lived up to early expectations. Operating less than 10% of the time, McNeil serves as a backup at peak demand periods. It won't ever pay for itself on that basis. McNeil was designed and built to be a base plant, it was designed to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Nobody envisioned back then, in the late 1970s, that the price of oil would drop, or that the price of competing electrical energy from Quebec would also drop. Electricity from oil now costs 17 mils per watt, while McNeil is generating at 24 mils. And McNeil wouldn't be generating even that cheaply but for low wood chip prices. McNeil is paying $16.54 per ton of wood chips. At that low price, they're not getting forestry chips but development chips. Forestry chips are produced by thinning out wood lots while development chips come from clearing land for roads, power lines, and housing tracts.

• OSTI ID: 5720642
• Journal Information: Am. For.; (United States), Journal Name: Am. For.; (United States) Vol. 93:7-8; ISSN AMFOA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
140504* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Biomass Production & Conversion-- (-1989)
BIOMASS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION
ECONOMIC IMPACT
ECONOMICS
ENERGY SOURCES
ENERGY SUPPLIES
FEDERAL REGION I
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
NORTH AMERICA
OXIDATION
POWER PLANTS
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
USA
VERMONT
WOOD
WOOD-FUEL POWER PLANTS