Middlebury College is touting its new wood-chip fired biomass steam heating plant that is helping the college meet its goal of becoming carbon neutral.
The college feels the $12 million biomass gasification plant can be a showplace for the college and a model others can use in the campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The new Middlebury plant is due to consume about three tons of wood chips an hour and meet about half of the school’s heating, cooling and hot water needs. The other half will still be produced using fuel oil.
The biomass plant will produce carbon dioxide, but those emissions will be offset by its renewable power source, trees, which absorb carbon dioxide until they’re cut down.