Construction began last week on a $250 million refit program for the Charter Street Heating plant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The coal-powered plant is being converted to run on natural gas and biomass fuels including wood chips and energy crops.
The most expensive single project in the university’s history, the new heating plant is expected to be completed in 2013.
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, who led the ground breaking ceremony last week, said: “This will be one of the largest biomass power plants in the world. It will be powering our campus, city and state with wood chips, corn stalks, switch grass pellets and who knows what other great fuels, that will be developed in the coming years.”
The plant refit comes in part as a response to a court order issued in 2007, which required the state to cut coal use at Charter Street by 15%. A federal judge decided the university and the state’s Department of Administration were violating the federal Clean Air Act at the plant.
The refit at Charter Street will be made more difficult because the facility will still be used to provide heating and cooling to the campus while construction is underway.
The construction and engineering is being carried out by Boldt Company,based in Appleton, Wisconsin, and by British engineering company AMEC, which has its US offices in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Governor Doyle said: “The Charter Street plant will turn a waste stream into clean energy, it will keep energy dollars in our communities, and it will help clean our air and water. This project will create great jobs in Wisconsin and will develop a new biomass market from our great fields and farms.”
With three gas boiler and one 100% biomass boiler, the new 29MW Charter Street facility is set to cut coal use by more than 108,000 tons each year as it powers 300 local buildings.
It is expected to require about 250,000 tons of biomass feedstocks each year, taking in pre-processed biomass fuels, rather than non-processed materials.
A request for proposals is expected to be released in January 2011, based on feedback from interested suppliers who have already come forward.
Tom Boldt, CEO of The Boldt Company said, said: “Boldt and AMEC have teamed to help deliver this world-class facility to the Madison area. Together, we are proud to be a part of one of the largest biomass projects in the nation, and are excited about the environmental and economic benefits this will have on our state.”
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