Not quite converted: how fuel prices both started and stopped a biomass heating plant project

Abstract

As the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Charter Street Heating Plant nears completion of its conversion from coal to natural gas, we look back at the missed opportunity to use biofuels in the plant upgrade. The project initially launched as an effort to convert the coal-fired heating plant into the country’s largest campus biofuel project. However, during the 2 years of planning, a new administration was elected, natural gas prices fell by over 67% and federal biomass subsidy programs were revised. This article reviews the history of the proposed biomass conversion project and the decision-making process to start and halt the project.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the other members of the Charter Street Heating Plant biomass development team, including G Radloff, F Hines, K Ragland, L Eagan, J Ehrfurth, S Walling, R Warner, A Fish and J Harrod.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Financial support of this work was supported by a Focus on Energy Research Grant (grant no. 10-10) and the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative at the University of Wisconsin (WI, USA). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.