Main Menu

Announcements

Manomet Team Releases Study of Woody Biomass in Massachusetts
Bioenergy Associations Join Call for Shift in Energy Policy and Investment in Clean Energy Technologies (read statement)
The Role of Forests in Vermont's Energy Future. View general Powerpoint presentation (lo-res) and read press coverage of June 9th Montpelier forum.
Release of new report, prepared by RSG, Inc. and BERC, titled Emission Controls for Small Wood-Fired Boilers.
The Renewable Energy Atlas of Vermont is now online. A project of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, this GIS-based web application is a first-of-its-kind tool that identifies, analyzes, and visualizes existing and promising locations for renewable energy projects in Vermont.
Montpelier Wins $8 Million Federal Energy Grant: press releases from the Vermont US Congressional Office and the US Department of Energy. Read Montpelier Community Renewable Energy Project summary.
The 2010 Annual Vermont Woodchip Users Conference summary.
Our Carbon, Our Communities: A community-based vision for using wood biomass in an era of climate change.
Biomass energy in colleges and universities (click here).

BERC Mission Statement

The Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC) is an independent, national nonprofit organization located in Montpelier, Vermont with a Midwest office in Madison, Wisconsin, that assists communities, colleges and universities, state and local governments, businesses, utilities, schools, and others in making the most of their local energy resources.

BERC’s mission is to achieve a healthier environment, strengthen local economies, and increase energy security across the United States through the development of sustainable biomass energy systems at the community scale. BERC’s particular focus is on the use of woody biomass and other pelletizable biomass fuels.

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 is a nonprofit organization that 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.

More...

BERC Conference Activity

July 2010

2010 Missouri River-Texoma Regional Conference & Midwest Levee Conference (organized by the Society of American Military Engineers)
July 12-14, 2010, Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark Hotel, St. Louis, Missouri

BERC Program Director Kamalesh Doshi will present on various technology options and case studies of "Biomass Energy Systems at Institutions and Government Buildings.”

August 2010

Northeast Combined Heat and Power Initiative: The Environmental Impacts of Combined Heat and Power
August 10, 2010, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Concord, New Hampshire

BERC Policy and Development Director Andrea Colnes will speak to the critical issues involved in the development of sustainable biomass energy as well as discuss the broad public policy context, issues, and opportunities.

More...