Press Release
April 23, 2007
Vermonter Is Appointed to Federal Biomass Advisory Committee
Timothy Maker, executive director of the Montpelier-based Biomass Energy Resource Center, has been appointed to serve on the Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee for a term of three years. Members are appointed by the Secretaries of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE) to assist these agencies in meeting important national goals of a healthier rural economy and improved national energy security.
Timothy Maker, BERC Executive Director
Committee members provide expert advice on strategic planning; the technical focus and direction of requests for proposals issued under the biomass initiative; procedures for reviewing and evaluating proposals for funding; and encouraging closer collaboration among federal and state agencies, industries, and growers. The Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee was established by the Biomass Research and Development Act of 2000.
Maker is nationally recognized as a leading expert in heating schools with automated woodchip systems. He has served as project manager for 10 schools that have installed or are installing wood-fired heating plants in Vermont, Maine, and Montana, and has also developed wood-energy systems in community and public housing settings. Maker is the author of Wood-Chip Heating Systems: A Guide for Institutional and Commercial Biomass Installations and co-author of Heating Communities with Renewable Fuels: The Municipal Guide to Biomass District Energy, a joint publication of DOE and Natural Resources Canada. Before joining BERC, for 15 years Maker was principal of EEA Biomass, a consulting firm focusing on wood energy projects.
Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC), where Maker has been executive director since its founding in 2001, is an independent, national nonprofit organization located in Montpelier, Vermont. BERC assists in the development of biomass energy programs, policy, information, and education. The organization’s mission is to achieve a healthier environment, strengthen local economies, and increase energy security across the United States by developing sustainable biomass energy systems at the community level. As an unbiased, experienced partner, BERC helps communities, schools and colleges, state and local governments, businesses, utilities, and others make the most of their local energy resources by facilitating the implementation of biomass energy projects.