RENEWABLE ENERGY

What is renewable energy? Why is it needed? And, perhaps foremost on your mind as you navigate this Web site, can one 50-megawatt, wood-burning power plant in the woods of Western Massachusetts really make a difference?

Those are essential questions. The answers aren't necessarily simple (in fact, they get more complicated as you go through the list), but we'll try to address them in a way that makes a certain amount of sense.

What is renewable energy? Why is it needed? And, perhaps foremost on your mind as you navigate this Web site, can one 50-megawatt, wood-burning power plant in Western Massachusetts really make a difference?
 
Those are essential questions. The answers aren't necessarily simple (in fact, they get more complicated as you go through the list), but we'll try to address them in a way that makes a certain amount of sense.
 
Renewable energy is a term that simply means energy generated using resources that are naturally replenished and sustainable, unlike fossil fuels, which are available in limited supply.

The most effective mechanism we know of reducing the production of greenhouse gases is to reduce worldwide consumption of fossil fuels.

Years ago most of mankind's traditional energy supplies were renewable. Wind, water, and solar energy, along with what we now refer to as biomass energy, were in use at the strictly local level (in mills, for example) for centuries before fossil fuels became the primary sources of commercial energy. In recent decades, as scientific concerns about the environmental harm caused by fossil fuel consumption, global warming foremost among them, have increased there has been a push to develop renewable sources of power for mass consumption. And in recent years it has become clear that as fossil fuel resources dwindle and our understanding of the environmental damage done by fossil fuel consumption grows, there is a pressing need to move toward renewable energy.

The evidence of the growing worldwide petroleum supply crisis is in front of you every time you visit the gas pumps or pay a bill for home heating oil or electricity. It's not getting better and it's not going to get better. The supply of crude oil is diminishing daily. And awakening economies in China, India and elsewhere in the world are only driving demand higher. The call for development of renewable energy sources no longer comes strictly from environmentalists. President George W. Bush, whose background in the oil industry is well documented, is America's highest-ranking proponent of renewable energy development.  

Coal, another fossil fuel, cannot be the answer to the petroleum crisis. It is difficult to mine, and the toll of coal mining on the environment and on miners can be catastrophic. And burning coal, even when the most stringent pollution controls are employed, produces emissions that have been proven to be environmentally harmful, putting both human populations and the environment at risk.

Even if fossil fuels were available in endless, cheap and easy to access supplies, their use would still be highly problematic. There is clear concern about the increase in global temperatures. Global warming is in part a result of human activity, including the consumption of fossil fuels, which result in the release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. The most effective mechanism we know of for reducing the production of greenhouse gases is to reduce worldwide consumption of fossil fuels. And since Americans have shown no desire to give up our automobiles or to turn off our TVs, air conditioners, computers, dishwashers, refrigerators ... our best hope for reducing fossil fuel consumption here at home is to develop alternative methods of generating power. Thus, the need for renewable energy projects to supply electric power to our society.

While no single form of renewable energy can replace the power currently generated by fossil fuels, a long-term solution can be achieved using a diverse mix of renewable energy projects, from wind farms to hydroelectric facilities to biomass generation. Biomass, in large part, involves the use of plant material to fuel energy production. Biomass fuels include such plant-based substances as biodiesel, biobutanol, biogas and bioethanol. Biomass power generation can also rely directly on plant matter, including switchgrass, corn, sugarcane and wood. Russell Biomass will burn clean, unwanted wood from builders' land-clearing, tree trimmings from power line clearing, stumps, clean discarded pallets and forest management activities to fuel our 50-megawatt power plant. That is, by burning wood that would otherwise rot on forest floors or in landfills, we will be able to generate power equivalent to what an oil-fired plant would produce by burning 480,000 barrels of oil a year.

Russell Biomass will not be the first plant of its kind. However, it will be the largest wood-fired power plant in Massachusetts, and the first such electric grid-connected plant to be built in the Commonwealth in the last 15 years. A number of commercial wood-fired power plants are currently operating elsewhere in New England, including Burlington, Vermont, and Stratton, Maine. Additionally, smaller wood-fueled plants have been in use for years at hospitals and schools in Western Massachusetts and beyond. Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton uses a wood plant to generate steam used in the hospital's heating and air conditioning systems. Cooley Dickinson reports saving hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in fuel costs by burning waste wood rather than relying on fossil fuels. Wood plants also are in use at Mt. Wachusett Community College in Gardner, at Athol High School and at public schools and government buildings throughout the state of Vermont.

This, of course, leads us back to that question about whether a single wood-burning power plant in a small, Western Massachusetts milltown can actually make a difference on a global scale. The short answer is, yes, it can. Russell Biomass embodies the activist axiom Think Globally, Act Locally. No, this plant won't slow the escalation of oil prices or stop global warming all by itself. But it will, as part of a greater picture, make a contribution to all of those goals. And our hope is that as the largest wood burning plant in Massachusetts and the safest biomass plant in New England history, Russell Biomass will help lay the groundwork for a major move toward renewable energy regionally. Then nationally. Then globally. That's how thinking globally and acting locally is supposed to work, isn't it?

For information on how you can work to stop global warming, visit our What You Can Do page.