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Bioenergy Stories

The Emersons stay warm with a local, low-carbon fuel source

Source: Efficiency Vermont

A Hardwick family installed a central wood pellet heating system with the help of Efficiency Vermont.

Categories: Bioenergy

Communities: Caledonia County, Hardwick

Affordable housing embraces automated wood heat

Source: Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation

Not that long ago, the Hollister Hill Apartments on Austin Road in Plainfield were a rather bleak example of 1970’s architecture that had seen better days. The Housing Foundation, Inc. had a vision to rebuild them, rendering them into comfortable, affordable, and functional units for their tenants to call home. They did so in part by embracing renewable energy in the form of a central wood pellet boiler.

Categories: Bioenergy

Communities: Plainfield

Sustainable Wood Heating Workshop - Cavendish

Source: Mary Ormrod

Wood piles come in different shapes and sizes and so do emissions and heating systems. Learn about the new technologies used in homes, schools and municipal buildings around the state. Tues. Nov 14 6pm Cavendish Town Office.

Categories: Bioenergy

Communities: Cavendish

Native Vermonter is Committed to Building "The Right House"

Source: Jenna Koloski - VCRD

"The Right House" project seeks solutions that strike a delicate balance between engineering and art.

Categories: Bioenergy

Communities: Stowe

Cutting Fossil Fuel Use with Compost Heat

Source: Jenna Koloski - Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD)

Most people know about composting—the natural recycling process that converts food scraps, leaves, and manures into soil building compost and mulch. What is less known is that this decomposition process also generates a substantial amount of heat.

Categories: Bioenergy

Communities: Enosburgh

Vermont Bioenergy Initiative Overview

Source: Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund

Vermont farmers, entrepreneurs and researchers are building an alternative model of bioenergy production that is small-scale, community focused, economical, and sustainable.

Categories: Bioenergy

Communities: Northwest Regional Planning Commission, Bennington County Regional Commission, Grand Isle County, Bennington County, Orange County, Alburgh, Newbury, Shaftsbury

Heating with Grass Fuel

Source: Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund

Heating fuels from switchgrass? A Vermont agronomist explains switchgrass production followed by entrepreneurs turning bales of grass into briquette fuel.

Categories: Bioenergy

Communities: Bennington

Carbon Harvest Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project in Brattleboro

Source: VNCR

Methane gas from the landfill runs a generator to produce electricity while the heat from this process is trapped and will be used to run a greenhouse and aquaculture.The greenhouse will produce over 20,000 pounds of food a year and the 30,000-gallon aquaculture will host tilapia.This will give the region fresh, local food even in winter.

Categories: Bioenergy

Communities: Brattleboro

Heating with Biomass at River Berry Farm

Source: Chris Callahan, University of Vermont Extension

David and Jane Marchant of River Berry Farm—an organic vegetable and fruit producer in Fairfax—were early adopters of biomass heating.

Categories: Bioenergy

Communities: Fairfax

Biodiesel Production at Borderview Farm

Source: Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund

Roger Rainville’s dairy-turned-energy farm in Grand Isle County is a place where area dairy farmers, organic growers, and landowners have made biodiesel from their own locally-grown sunflower seeds.

Categories: Bioenergy

Communities: Grand Isle County, Alburgh