By SARA WIDNESS

A student’s vision that was reflected in a project for academic credit in 2005 will become a reality this coming winter when a wood-chip plant fires up to heat Poultney’s Green Mountain College (GMC) campus and provide 20 percent of the college’s electrical needs.

“We are a college where environmental sustainability is a major facet of education,” said Kevin Coburn, director of communications for the college.

“By building a biomass plant, we feel we are walking the talk,” Coburn said.

The total cost of the biomass plant is estimated at about $5.4 million. This includes the wood chip plant and electric co-generation, a steam turbine generator attached to the wood boilers that will produce 400,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. This will meet about 20 percent of the college’s power needs.

In 2005, a GMC student project recommended engaging a cleaner source of fuel to replace #6 fuel oil, which releases high amounts of sulfur and other pollutants, Coburn said. This vision became a formal student-generated proposal and was the origin of the plant, which is expected to become operational in February 2010.

“Students can really feel quite proud that they affected real change on campus,” he said, adding college President Paul Fonteyn quickly embraced the project when he assumed the leadership reins last July.

“He saw this plan on his desk; he put his full support behind it,” said Coburn. “Through his leadership and that of the board of trustees, the project is going forward and is under construction now.”

The plant will burn local renewable wood chips instead of #6 fuel oil, which currently is the college’s primary source of heat. Besides presenting a cost savings, the plant will be burning a clean, renewable fuel.

Annual savings, said Coburn, will be about $250,000 in heating costs. The plant is designed to pay for itself in 15 years.

The college currently uses 230,000 gallons of oil annually. This will be replaced by 4,400 tons of woodchips. The biomass plant is expected to be running about 85 percent of the time, but will be augmented by the oil burner during spring and fall.

“We’re already getting 50 percent of our power from the Central Vermont Public Service Cow Power program. With an additional 20 percent from co-generation, about 70 percent of our electricity will derive from renewable sources,” Coburn said.

“This brings us close to where few colleges have been: complete carbon neutrality. We hope to be completely carbon neutral by 2011,” he added, noting this is “a very advanced time table compared to most schools.”

Information from Coburn’s office outlined the wood -chip-burning process. Chips are fed onto a conveyor belt and heated at a very high temperature with low oxygen until they smolder and emit gas. On the backside of the boiler, oxygen is added to make the gas ignite.

Unlike a direct transfer of energy from a wood stove, where fire consumes the fuel and emits ash and pollutants up the chimney, water in the college’s new boiler will circulate through pipes, creating steam to heat the campus. The steam also activates the power-producing turbines.

HP Cummings, a construction management firm in Woodsville, NH, has been hired to manage construction, including the bid process. The architect is Smith-Alvarez-Sienkiewycz of Burlington. Site preparation began in May.

Green Mountain College is located at One Brennan Circle, Poultney, VT 05764. The telephone number is 802.287.8000. ?