Forks serving as biomass pioneer

By Chris Cook - Forks Forum editor

Generating electricity and heat by burning wood waste or other surplus fibrous materials goes back over 100 years.
With fossil fuel at a premium, and the logging industry at a slowdown, the time has come for building up a modern biomass industry on the West End and on the North Olympic Peninsula.

Providing a new source of employment and making the area more energy self-sufficient, and saving educational funds, are the goals of a $1 million, state-funded  pilot project in the planning stages at Forks Middle School and Forks High School.

An agreement with BLRB Architects of Tacoma was approved at the Feb. 10 Quillayute Valley School District meeting. The firm, along with consultant Santech, will move ahead with a budget analysis of the project which was brought to Forks through the efforts of Port Angeles Port Commissioner John Calhoun and Forks City Attorney/Planner Rod Fleck.

The plant would bring heat to chilly school classrooms, provide an outlet for sale of mill wood waste that is now trucked out of town for processing, and serve as a pilot program that other rural school districts with forest industries could use as a model.
The project has a 2010 deadline and work is expected to start later this year.

Economic stimulus funds are being sought to pay for costs which are estimated to top $1 million.

Fleck told the Forks Forum that the goal is to go to bid on the project in May, with a completion date of about eight months once the contract is awarded.

He said an add-on micro-cogeneration system is also part of the project. The mini-turbines would send electricity back in the PUD electric grid, providing an income stream for the schools.

The emissions from the existing heating system would also be significantly reduced, he said, providing a healthier environment on school grounds.

“It’s an innovative project in Washington state that can help us address some private sector needs?while creating clean energy for kids in our schools,” Fleck said.

Another similar biomass project is being proposed in Southeast Washington. “We are ahead of Dayton, who haven’t signed a contract,” Fleck said.

In the current session of the Legislature 24th District Rep. Kevin Van de Wege (D-Sequim) has introduced a plan to build a good sized electricity-generating biomass plant for the North Olympic Peninsula.

Energy Northwest and Adage also have plans to build a biomass plant somewhere in Western Washington in 2012 at the earliest.