New Mexico Looks for Biomass Proposals
By Adam Rankin, Albuquerque Journal, N.M. -- April 23
The state of New Mexico is looking to turn overgrown forests into economic engines that save taxpayers money.
The Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department and the state of
Arizona are looking for proposals to study the feasibility of using woody
growth, or biomass, that would otherwise be discarded as a perpetual energy
source for public and commercial buildings.
The best proposals will receive up to $35,000 in funding through a Department
of Agriculture grant to analyze whether a biomass project could work and pay for
itself through energy savings within a decade.
Traditionally, thinned trees across the West have been piled into slash heaps
for burning, contributing only to the atmospheric concentration of carbon
dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
"Rather than waste all this wood."."." why not do
something with it that will benefit the state's economic position?" said
Dan Ware, a spokesman for the State Forestry Division.
"Small diameter trees for years and years were considered trash,"
said Kim Kostelnik, who is managing the funding program for the state.
She said a number of school districts and state facilities, from Gallina to
Silver City, already have taken an interest in replacing their conventional
heating systems with one powered by locally harvested biomass.
"The technology right now is commercialized for heating; you can take it
and run with it and do it right now," Kostelnik said.
Biomass heating, which is as much as 90 percent efficient, is prevalent in
Europe and has recently been gaining popularity in the United States. Local
Energy, a Santa Fe based nonprofit, recently received a $1.3 million grant from
the federal Agriculture and Energy departments to test the feasibility of
developing a biomass-powered district heating system in the City Different.
Other biomass applications, such as converting trees and cow manure into
liquid biofuels to power cars and trucks, require additional research and
development, Kostelnik said.
The state recently helped convene a Biomass Industry Development Working
Group, which includes state universities, national laboratories, utilities, the
Forest Service and industry, to develop applications, including liquid fuels,
for biomass in the state that would otherwise go to waste.
The group is holding a state-sponsored biomass conference May 12-13 at Santa
Fe Community College to discuss the future of biofuels and how they can be
applied locally.
"We've been working on this, actually, since 1997, so it is not a
fly-by-night thing," Kostelnik said.
Five years ago the state led the Four Corners Sustainable Forest Partnership,
a cooperative effort among New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Colorado, in funding
innovative approaches to generating local businesses while improving forest
health by thinning.
Examples of New Mexico businesses spawned by that effort include: Zuni
Furniture Enterprises, a 10-employee furniture factory on the Zuni reservation
that is now powered by a 15-kilowatt biomass generator; a company that produces
animal bedding from small diameter trees; and a sign maker in Mountainair who
melds wood chips and milk cartons into weather resistant signs, Kostelnik said.
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