new hampshire

- by Patrick O’Grady, April 15, 2015, Valley News

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"463","attributes":{"alt":"wheelabrator incinerator in claremont new hampshire","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 197px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]The shuttered Wheelabrator incinerator on Grissom Lane was sold at auction Tuesday for $1.63 million, with the buyer saying he plans to use it to burn municipal waste.

As several bidders stood outside the plant hoping to pick up pieces of equipment at a bargain price, auctioneer Stuart Millner explained that he would allow a bidder to buy everything, including about 9 acres of land.

Millner started the bidding at $1.5 million and Ed Deely — who said he was there on behalf of Hybrid Tech Farms — quickly raised it to the final price of $1.63 million. Other bidders who were not present at the site communicated with Millner by phone, but it was unclear how many there were.

The sale price was referred to as “restricted,” which Deely explained means there will be restrictions, agreed to with Wheelabrator, on the municipalities from which the company can accept solid waste. Late Tuesday, Deely said it is too early to predict when the sale would be finalized or when the plant would start burning trash.

- by Michael Mccord, November 26, 2014, New Hampshire Business Review

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"318","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 320px; height: 480px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","title":"Photo: New Hampshire Business Review"}}]]New Hampshire’s recently released 10-year energy strategy acknowledged an ongoing fact of life for the state’s commercial and residential sectors: New Hampshire imports 100 percent of its fossil fuels and natural gas. According to the NH Wood Energy Council, New Hampshire pays more than $1 billion annually to import heating oil, with a large chunk of that paid for by businesses, since the state’s commercial sector is the second most dependent on heating oil in the nation, just behind Maine.

As energy customers realized again last winter, this dependence makes the state vulnerable to wild market swings and, in the case of natural gas last winter, shortages due to limited pipeline infrastructure.

That’s why, among its many recommendations, the state’s energy strategy calls for a greater use of wood as a fuel source. Wood, the energy report says, “offers a promising alternative to home heating oil and other petroleum products, providing a much needed option to extend fuel choice to rural areas of the state. Since New Hampshire is one of the most forested states in the nation, wood also presents an opportunity to capitalize on locally‐produced resources, keeping money in state while promoting land conservation efforts.”

In fact, the growth of a wood/biomass heating alternative for commercial use has been an ongoing under-the-radar trend taking place in more rural areas of New Hampshire. Like the wood stove heating the general store a century ago, biomass heating in the forms of wood pellets and wood chips has become an economically viable option for larger-scale municipal, school and commercial operations.

- by Chris Jensen, August 21, 2014, New Hampshire Public Radio

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"247","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"362","style":"width: 333px; height: 251px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","title":"Photo: Chris Jensen","width":"480"}}]]A new biomass plant in Berlin is finally producing electricity for Public Service of New Hampshire under a controversial 20-year contract that a report says will cost PSNH ratepayers $125 million more than if the electricity was purchased on the open market...

That estimate came from the consulting firm of La Capra Associates which did the report for the state's Public Utilities Commission as part of a wide-ranging review of PSNH’s operations.

In a statement PSNH said the La Capra report isn’t a sure thing because its conclusions are “highly dependent on a number of issues that are uncertain and difficult to predict - the future price of gas, the retirement of other power plants, and new infrastructure development, among other things." 

But La Capra’s conclusions are not unfamiliar to PSNH. The La Capra report echoes warnings the Public Utilities Commission staff and the state’s Office of Consumer Advocate made back in 2011. That’s when the three PUC commissioners considered testimony and dozens of documents as they were considering whether to approve the contract.

- by Chris Jensen, May 23, 2014, New Hampshire Public Radio

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"153","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 280px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"}}]]About 51 percent of the wood purchased for the new Burgess BioPower biomass plant in Berlin during its first two months of operation came from New Hampshire, according to a new “sustainability” report filed with the state’s Site Evaluation Committee.

Thirty-five percent came from Maine.

Five percent from Vermont.

Eight percent from Massachusetts.

And "one truck load" came from Canada.

[Other than ignoring all health and environmental impacts of biomass incineration, this article falsely claims that the Burgess BioPower incinerator in New Hampshire can operate at 90% efficiency, while in reality biomass power incinerators operate at 20-25% efficiency. -Ed.]

- by Geoffrey Craig and Derek Sands, Platts

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"196","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 228px; height: 192px; float: left; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;"}}]]Connecticut's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority approved on Tuesday a New Hampshire-based, 75-MW biomass power plant as eligible to generate Class I renewable energy certificates.

The facility, called Burgess BioPower, has a 20-year power purchase agreement with Public Service Company of New Hampshire.

PSNH will purchase a maximum of 400,000 RECs annually. Assuming 90% efficiency, Burgess BioPower would be capable of generating 591,300 RECs per year, which means RECs would be leftover that can be sold in other markets, such as Connecticut.