Heating Cascadia

Andrew Haden

The conversation about sustainable energy is really three related conversations about transport, electricity and heat. Energy sources to effectively satisfy each of these needs vary by region. In the Pacific Northwest, the abundant and long-lived forests offer a clear choice for heat energy: biomass.

The temperate forest countries of northern Europe offer a glimpse of the biomass industry’s potential. Over 20 percent of the energy used for electricity and heat in Sweden, Finland and parts of Austria is supplied through biomass. Stockholm heats all its buildings from four central heating plants, the largest of which is biomass fueled, a strategy known as district heating. State-of-the-art European boilers, like the ones imported to heat a hospital in Burns, Ore., and the new airport facility in John Day, Ore., are 20 percent more efficient and burn 70 percent cleaner than those manufactured in the United States.

Renewable, reliable, non-polluting

The sustainability of any energy source can be judged by three metrics. It must be renewable, reliable and non-polluting. In the twentieth century, the biomass boilers installed for heating commercial and institutional premises often faced reliability issues. With those concerns alleviated by modern technology, today’s discussions largely center on the industry’s renewability and its pollution emissions.  

The renewability of biomass energy depends on infrastructural factors like the size, location and types of facilities. As with many kinds of infrastructure, it’s important not to get locked into systems that may prove unsustainable over the medium to long term. Biomass electric generation facilities that have no adjacent process heat consumer, and so vent their waste heat to the atmosphere, are particularly vulnerable to lock in because they are typically larger than heating facilities and operate at less than 30 percent efficiency, whereas heat boilers of U.S. and European manufacture are roughly 70 and 85 percent efficient, respectively. 

Proposed emissions regulations

Emissions of particulate matter from small-scale commercial and institutional biomass heating boilers are currently unregulated in the U.S., and these emissions have often proven controversial. Boilers installed in schools in Montana and the U.S. Northeast through “fuels for schools” programs have emissions rates of roughly 0.2 lbs/mmBtu. In Europe, through advancements in combustion chamber and heat exchanger design, manufacturers have been able to reduce emissions to 0.06 lbs/mmBtu or less, without expensive secondary pollution controls. 

Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed sweeping regulations that would classify biomass emissions together with those from coal-fired electrical plants. While these regulations are important for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mercury pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, failing to distinguish coal from biomass plants could significantly harm one of our most promising new industries and energy sources.

The draft EPA rules propose that all boilers in the country meet a 0.03 lbs/mmBtu emissions standard, a pollution level that is globally unprecedented and twice as clean as the toughest European standards. I believe a more effective way to regulate small biomass boilers would be with clear timelines that offer U.S. companies the planning horizon needed to make improvements that would meet stricter standards. 

Biomass for the rural Northwest

Rural communities around the Pacific Northwest are especially good candidates for biomass. Most rural communities in Oregon and Washington have been bypassed by natural gas utilities and must rely on expensive fuels such as oil, propane or electricity for heating. Also, as rural Northwest communities are often situated in or near forested landscapes, they can reduce both fire risk and greenhouse gas emissions, while increasing economic self-reliance, through long-term forest management that utilizes waste wood for biomass heating.

A full-fledged biomass industry is estimated to be able to sustain over 4,500 full-time jobs in Oregon, with similar numbers in neighboring states. Biomass heating represents the kind of homegrown sustainability that needs our support.

Andrew Haden is vice president of A3 Energy Partners. He focuses on developing infrastructure in rural communities that increases economic self-reliance using local natural resources.