WATERVILLE, Maine — Waterville Senior High School unveiled a new wood pellet boiler on Wednesday that will save an estimated $94,000 a year compared to using heating oil.
The school was one of 22 public buildings chosen through a grant from the Maine Forest Service for wood pellet and wood chip furnaces to lessen the dependence on foreign oil, and instead put that money into Maine’s economy while also cutting fuel bills.
“The big impact here is our reduction in fuel use,” said Jim Reny, facility director for Waterville public schools. “It costs $72 a ton delivered [for the wood pellets]. If you were buying oil, you’d be paying about $1.50 [per gallon for the same amount of fuel consumption]. We’re basically getting our heat for $2 less per gallon.”
The project also replaced the school’s backup boiler and windows.
The wood pellet boiler in Gardiner City Hall had its ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday morning.
So far, 13 of the 22 projects have been completed. Five of the buildings that have yet to be completed are in Aroostook County.
“We had 90 applicants,” said U.S. Forest Service Project Manager Rob Clark. “We only had enough funds to support 22.”
The U.S. Forest Service allocated $11.4 million to the Maine Forest Service, which in turn handed out grants to fund the 22 projects. In order to receive the grants, the municipalities had to match part of the grant.
“We ended up with about $31 million worth of financial activity,” said Tom Wood, senior planner of the Wood to Energy Program for the Maine Forest Service.
Clark explained that by promoting forestry products as a viable fuel option, Maine’s forests would benefit.
“It really boils down to this, our mission is keeping forests as forests,” he said. “This provides an opportunity for wood products that wasn’t there before. There’s markets for lumber, there’s markets for pulpwood. This is a new emerging market for energy. This provides land owners with a revenue source instead of converting their land to other uses [such as commercial development].”
It also keeps the money spent on fuel in Maine, said Wood.
“The superintendent writes a check for a dollar’s worth of oil. Eight-five cents has left the state before the ink is dry,” said Wood. “When you write a check for a dollar’s worth of pellets, it all stays home. Local landowners, local laborers, foresters, haulers, truckers — it’s all here. So that dollar circulates four or five times in the local economy. It makes a big difference opposed to 15 cents. That’s what really makes a difference in the long term.”
Wood said the total savings of the 22 facilities will be $3 million. Some of the buildings will earn the investment back very quickly.
“Some of the smaller projects, such as Poland School, are saving almost $117,000 a year on a project that costs $700,000,” Wood said. “Their turnaround is six years to have it paid off. It’s pretty remarkable.”
I want my RSU to get wood boilers. I will pay my town taxes in firewood. And the bad kids that get detention can stay after school to stack wood. Wood: local, renewable, but requires getting off one’s duff.
Cruel and unusual punishment. Unlike the days of old, the RSU would be sued today. But it sound like a fine idea to me!
Fuzzy math???
“The big impact here is our reduction in fuel use,” said Jim Reny,
facility director for Waterville public schools. “It costs $72 a ton
delivered [for the wood pellets]. If you were buying oil, you’d be
paying about $1.50 [per gallon for the same amount of fuel consumption].
We’re basically getting our heat for $2 less per gallon.”
How do you get your heat for $2 less /gallon if you are only paying $1.50 /gallon?????
And then of course this is all speculation, based on the cost of wood pellets staying at the stated price and the efficiency of the pellet burner. I have found that the advertised savings are not realistic………. ever. Time will tell.
Sounds like Reny’s basing his numbers on the current[Municipal] cost of heating oil, about $3.50/gallon. $3.50 – $1.50(equivalent cost of pellet fuel) = $2/gallon.
Pellets at $72/ton = Oil at $1.50/gallon.
Why isn’t every public building in Maine either pellet or wood boiler heated? The millions that the state and municipalities spend on heating oil could be much better spent on local, renewable resources. It would also put Mainers back to work supplying the pellets or firewood. Oh, I forgot, LePage is against creating jobs.
$72 per ton delivered? WOW. I had no idea it only costs about $20 per ton to convert $50+ per ton feedstock into pellets AND deliver them. How is there such spread between the mega-bulk cost and the lowest bagged price per ton of about $230 or so? Does it cost that much to bag pellets and market them? Is there a huge difference in the quality of mega-bulk pellets? I am a strong proponent for using the forest resource we have. I would like to see some realistic numbers with regard to actual operating costs rather than just the fuel costs. Again, I am all for displacing oil to whatever degree we can but it is critical that unrealistic expectations be avoided. Does anyone remember what happened when wood chips where considered as a cheaper than oil fuel for electricity generation? We are still paying for that fiasco. Just saying.
The difference?
It’s either very expensive bags or those truckers are really making a killing.
What we need is wood pellet fired wind turbines!
Great work, thank you Maine Forest Service…!!!
This article is very confusing. Wood chips and pellets are VERY different fuels. Their cost and energy per weight is not comparable. Gardiner got a pellet boiler, Waterville is looking at a chip boiler.
Pellet manufacturers claim that one ton of pellets equals about 116 gallons of oil. If the cost per ton is $72 then the equivalent cost per gallon is about $0.60. Not a bad deal. Woodtoheat is correct in that pellets and chips are different. The btu value of wood is fairly consistent between species. The big difference is in the moisture content. My guess is that virgin chips have a moisture content of up to 35% +/-. When espousing the virtues of wood vs oil there really needs to be a more realistic appraisal undertaken. Focusing only on the cost of the fuel is misleading and will only hurt the prospects for wide spead acceptance of pellets for home heating. Alternatives come with a price and the sooner people understand what those costs are the better.
Right in the back yard of Mr. LePage, good job to him again!!!!
Maine Energy Systems was quoting pellet bulk prices for residential delivery at $239 per ton.
There can’t be a a $167 price difference for commercial bulk pellets. The $72 per ton must be for wood chips not pellets