Posted on 09/26/2011 1:59:56 PM PDT by GSWarrior
The dead wood of Colorado’s lodgepole pine forest should be harnessed as biomass energy before it becomes fuel for a conflagration, a former Aspen mayor said.
One way to do that could be a biomass project in Eagle County, where a Provo, Utah, company is considering construction of a 10-megawatt plant.
Dean Rostrom, principal of Evergreen Clean Energy LLC, will discuss plans for a plant at a regional biomass summit from 12:45 to 4:45 p.m. Wednesday in the Carbondale town hall.
The denuded lodgepole forest covering 4.2 million acres is becoming more dangerous, not less, as trees killed by the mountain pine beetle fall at the rate of thousands a day, said John Bennett, the former Aspen mayor who now is the executive director of For the Forest.
Fire danger from a massive beetle kill such as the one in Colorado is high as the trees turn red and the timber goes dry, Bennett said. The threat of fire, however, lessens as the needles fall and the trees become gray skeletons, he said.
“About five to eight years later, the trees begin to fall and create a pile of timber on the forest floor. That’s when the fire danger goes back up, and it stays high for 20 or 30 years,” Bennett said. “Some parts of the forest in Colorado are approaching that latter phase.”
Converting those dead trees into biomass to generate electricity or serve as an alternative fuel, however, could provide the economic impetus to clean up dead timber from around roads, highways, communities, waterways and transmission corridors, Bennett said.
“This could create the market financing for the forest restoration urgently needed around the state,” Bennett said.
The summit will look at opportunities and obstacles to development as they have been studied by the Roaring Fork Biomass Consortium.
A $100,000 feasibility study conducted by the consortium looked at existing supplies of woody and non-woody biomass, the relationship of biomass handling to greenhouse gas emissions, technology, tree farming and education.
Converting dead lodgepole pine into biomass fuels provides the opportunity to create energy without adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, Bennett said.
Decomposing dead wood adds mightily to greenhouse gases, so converting the trees to fuel reduces the threat of climate change, Bennett said. It also offers an avenue to energy independence, “a critically important step,” Bennett said.
It would cost more to cut the trees down, chip them up, and haul the chips than they are worth.
Presently, there’s an oversupply of wood relative to facilities than can use it as fuel.
It would cost more to cut the trees down, chip them up, and haul the chips than they are worth.
Presently, there’s an oversupply of wood relative to facilities than can use it as fuel.
All is required is about 550 million In a green energy loan. What a crock.
An Egyptian rail road used mummies for fuel for the steam engines. Just an Idea.
Sierra club sued the forest Service to stop them form maintaining the 100,000 acres of trees that blew down and cause the Pine Beetle epidemic. I am sure that the Sierra Club would do their share to clean up the mess.
I love the self important ways these libtards speak. They can’t just say “We’d like to burn the dead trees.”. They need grant money to study woody and non-woody biomass and calculate the carbon footprint. Idiots! Get out of the way and let loggers do their work.
Where does this “grant” money come from?
Texas has about 70,000mw of generating capacity. At 10mw, Texas' generating capacity could be replaced by "only" 7,000 of these.
Forgot to post the link to current Texas usage: http://www.ercot.com/
Yeah, sure, and every environmentalist and green jobs advocate jumping off the edge of the earth would be ten,maybe a thousand times as effective in helping the economy.
I think the point he is trying to make (badly) is that "composting" wood emits a lot of methane (bacterial action), while burned wood emits virtually only CO2. Methane is a vastly stronger greenhouse gas than CO2.
but mankind burned animal dung, then wood and coal to beat the band especially during the industrial revolution before use of oil and SUVs came along, so why didn't all that heavy greenhouse gas kill us all off back then? So, if them Global Warming sumbitches are right, how come... 
we are still alive?
Wood is better used a fuel for home heating. About two years ago high efficiency heating stoves that used wood pellets hit the market and quickly became the cheapest form of home heating available.
Someone recently told me however that the price of wood pellets has sharply risen for some reason.
This abundant supply of wood should help remedy that.
Nope....see post 32.
I was thinking more like just plain ol’ dead Marxists...we could start with Lenin’s corpse...maybe dig up Karl Marx himself and Friedrich Engels too...
It’s a thought...they could then finally REALLY “give something back to society”...
And then we could “moveon” to...nah...won’t go there..yet..
Thanks
really -lol. All these green technologies are a total joke and will NEVER supply any significant energy.
One can go to the eia.gov site and see that in 2009, the Electrical needs of the U.S. was 1,755,904 Megawatts. That is a lot of energy.
If anyone thinks that "green" energy is a player they are either total delusional, or misinformed.
***Converting dead lodgepole pine into biomass fuels provides the opportunity to create energy without adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, Bennett said.****
What’s wrong with coal? All it is is ancient biomass that never got recycled by nature back into CO 2.
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