Oak Creek, Colorado is looking into forming a central heating system by replacing its coal boilers with a biomass boiler/geoexchange heating system. The biomass boiler will burn pellets created from all the dead beetle kill pine trees.
If it happens, it sounds like a winning way to significantly lower fuel costs for the small town located about 20 miles south of Steamboat Springs and get rid of all the dead lodgepole pines located all over Colorado.
When the beetle epidemic started, Mark Mathis constructed a plant in Kremmling to grind up the trees and form them into pellets for heating homes and businesses. (There is also a pellet plant in Walden.) Mr. Mathis claims that Oak Creek can recoup the costs for the central burner in four years, and Oak Creek can see significant savings after that.
It has been estimated that 90% of the lodgepole pines will be dead by 2013, so long-term supply of the pellets is one of the big question marks.
Comments (0)Subscribe to CommentsComment