Brattleboro Thermal Utility, Inc.
Marlboro College Technology Center, 1st Floor
28 Vernon Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301, USA
NEXT BOARD MEETING: TBD (no sooner than 3/1)
COMMUNITY SERVICE MESSAGE The Marlboro MBA program will proceed with its February 26-28 intensive in Brattleboro, as planned. It will NOT be cancelled due to inclement weather. Participants are nonetheless urged to allow plenty of time for travel, drive safely, and avoid traveling if, in their judgment, local conditions between where they live and Brattleboro pose unacceptable risks due to for example icy roads or high winds.
January-February 2010: INFRASTRUCTURE BUSINESS PLANNING: With the news in late 2009 that an application to Vermont's SPEED (feed-in tariff) program had been accepted for a 2.2 MW biomass CHP plant on Cersosimo Industries land at Brattleboro's south end, BTU is now exploring our next steps based on a scenario as a thermal distribution network operator buying waste heat from privately owned sources. Stay tuned... We may issue a new RFP for assistance in detailed planning and design of the system.
November 16, 2009: FEASIBILITY STUDY COMPLETE: Waldron Engineering submitted its final report and accompanying spreadsheet (available for downloads from this website free of charge - see "Key Documents"). BTU carried out a Brattleboro Selectboard briefing on December 17 and a public presentation about the feasibility study on December 19, in which Waldron Engineering and BERC took part.
September 7, 2009: With the feasibility study moving into its final weeks, BTU is planning to scrutinize Waldron's findings with the help of Dan Ingold of Powersmith Consulting, and with the involvement of BERC - the Biomass Energy Resource Center - in Montpelier. A full text of the feasibility study will be made available to the public along with comments and questions prepared by BTU. Meanwhile, Ralph Meima has asked to lessen his role on the board due to other commitments, including his membership of the newly established Brattleboro Town Energy Committee, so at the 9/9 board meeting, it is anticipated that formal approval will be granted to Michael Bosworth (Treasurer) to join Ralph as Co-Chair of the Board.
May 28, 2009: BTU announces the contract with the State of Vermont granting access to the CEDF grant, and announces that the feasibility study will be carried out by a consortium of Waldron Engineering of Exeter, NH and NRG Thermal of Minneapolis, MN, with additional support from Powersmith Farm of Guilford, VT and the Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC) of Montpelier, VT. Work will commence shortly. (Full press release can be downloaded from this website; see center of this page.)
April 6, 2009: Vermont's Clean Energy Development Fund (CEDF) awards $20,000 jointly to BTU and the Town of Brattleboro for a feasibility study.
September 16, 2008: Brattleboro Selectboard votes to commit up to $5000 from the town's undesignated revenue as a match for BTU's upcoming application to the Vermont CEDF (Clean Energy Development Fund) for funds to support a biomass fuel supply feasibility study in partnership with BERC, the Biomass Energy Resource Center, located in Montpelier, Vermont.
September 8, 2008: BTU issues Request for Statements of Qualifications to prospective providers of a feasibility study for a biomass-fueled CHP plant and municipal district energy system in Brattleboro.
BTU and the Town of Brattleboro received a grant from the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund for a study to determine the economic, technical, and environmental feasibility of a biomass-fueled CHP district energy system in Brattleboro, one of the first of its kind in the USA.
The study was carried out by Waldron Engineering of Exeter, NH and NRG Thermal of Minneapolis, MN, with support from Powersmith Farm of Guilford, VT and the Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC) of Montpelier, VT. The study report and accompanying spreadsheet are available free of charge for download from this website; see "Key Documents".
Click here to download the May 28 press release as a PDF document: BTU-CEDF-PrRel-May28-09.pdf
Our mission is to create a community energy system for the Town of Brattleboro, Vermont generating both electricity and thermal energy, using biomass as a fuel, for the benefit of multiple stakeholders and the town as a whole. To achieve our mission, we will develop and operate a district energy system using a modern biomass-fueled combined heat and power (CHP) plant to deliver (A) thermal energy via a buried, insulated hot/cold-water pipe network to businesses, municipal and school buildings, homes, and other consumers, and (B) electric energy directly into the shared grid.
Our long-term aim is to eliminate Brattleboro's dependency on fossil fuels (primarily oil and natural gas) for heating, and obtain most of its electricity from renewable local sources.
This mature technology has become very common in Northern Europe over the past several decades. In Sweden, for example, about 50% of all indoor spaces and 75% of all apartments are heated by district heating, and the Swedish District Heating Association estimates that, at current oil price levels, it would be profitable for as much as 75% of total indoor heating to be provided by district heating systems.
The following challenges have been driving BTU's mission since its organization in early 2007:
Based on the above drivers BTU will have achieved its purposes when the following criteria have been satisfied: