Adam Sherman of the Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC) hopes that Randolph people will turn out Monday evening to hear a presentation about the potential of biomass energy in Randolph.

BERC, the national leader in developing small-scale biomass energy, has been studying the possibility of a central biomass heating plant that could pipe enough hot water from its boilers to provide all the heat for downtown buildings, the hospital, and the manufacturing firms south of the village.

The study was funded by a $25,000 grant from the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund, matched by the state Department of Energy.

Cooperating with BERC are Vermont Technical College through its sustainability center and the Randolph Area Community Development Corp.

The study has now been completed, and Sherman, the lead researcher, is eager to share the results. The report focuses on four areas, he told The Herald:

• An analysis of the energy requirements of all the buildings within the target area;
• A discussion of where the biomass plant (most likely, a woodchip burner) should be;
• Schematics for the best piping network to deliver heat where it is needed, including phase-in procedures if it’s not all done at once; and
• Overall project cost and economics compared to the likely cost of oil over 30 years.

The results of this last calculation, Sherman said, indicate that a biomass system would likely break even—if heating oil prices remain at $2.50 a gallon. If they rise to $4 gallon, he said, the economics look “incredibly compelling.”

Vermont is already a national leader in wood heating for institutions, Sherman pointed out. More than 40 public schools utilize central wood boilers, he noted, and institutions like Middlebury College do also.

Randolph Union High School, he noted probably saved as much as $50,000 in this heating season because of its wood boiler.

Nor is the concept of sharing utilities new, he said.

“It’s similar in concept to a municipal water system,” he pointed out. It would be complete with meters measuring both flow and temperature for billing purposes.

The system would be environmentally positive, he clamed, because one large central boiler can burn wood much more efficiently than a lot of small boilers or stoves.

This is an area in which Europeans are ahead of this country, Sherman noted, and in fact a technician from Italy will be present at the meeting to describe European installations in towns of Randolph’s size.

As an advocate for biomass energy, Sherman emphasized that even if oil prices stay at $2.50, installing such a system here would be beneficial. It would reduce the political disadvantages of relying on imported oil, and it would keep profits and jobs locally.

Some of those profits and jobs would go to the forest industry, he pointed out. The preliminary findings of the study, he said, show that the Randolph area has “a large wood basket” that is growing more than enough trees to power the wood burner. This would mean jobs for foresters, loggers, and truckers, and profits for landowners, he pointed out.

Those looking for more information are urged to show up at the Baptist Fellowship on Route 66 at 7 p.m. Monday the 20th.