AnnouncementsTwo of Vermont’s leading energy organizations are combining efforts to further the advancement and adoption of sustainable energy in Vermont and beyond. Two of Vermont’s leading energy organizations are combining efforts to further the advancement and adoption of sustainable energy in Vermont and beyond. As of July 2012, the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC) has assumed the programs of the Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC), building upon the long-lived cooperation and mutual support between the mission-driven, non-profit organizations. This transition will result in an expanded, and growing, set of comprehensive sustainable energy services that encompasses biomass, other renewable energy resources, transportation, and energy efficiency."
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FAQs
Q: What is biomass?
A: Biomass is any biological material that can be used as fuel. Biomass fuel is burned or converted in systems that produce heat, electricity, or both heat and power. Woodchips, wood pellets, and other low-grade wood wastes are the major type of biomass fuel. Other common biomass fuel sources are agricultural crop residues and farm animal wastes.
Q: What is BERC? How can you help us with our project?
A: The Biomass Energy Resource Center assists communities, colleges and universities, state and local governments, businesses, utilities, schools, and others in making the most of their local energy resources. We offer services in project pre-feasibility assessment as well as provide a variety of technical and policy resources. Project work includes biomass energy prefeasibility studies, biomass energy RFP assistance and evaluation, and technology assessment.
Q: What kinds of facilities use biomass?
A: Facilities suitable for biomass systems include schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, public buildings, hotels and motels, commercial buildings, greenhouses, large-scale agricultural operations, manufacturing plants, power plants, and community district energy systems (the latter being the use of a central heating plant to provide heat to multiple buildings using buried pipes to distribute the energy). BERC’s expertise is in ‘community-scale’ biomass systems in the 1-to-10 million Btu per hour (output) range.
BERC Conference Activity
International Training Seminar Biomass Heating - Market development and technologies
9 - 12 September 2013, Linz/Austria
The 3-day international training seminar will provide information and know-how on local market development and technologies for automatic biomass heating, based on the experience in Austria. It will focus on small- and mid-scale projects, fuelled by wood pellets and wood chips, covering solutions for homes, smaller commercial/public buildings and district heating grids (up to a few hundred kW).
