County awarded grant for wood energy project

San Juan Islands Conservation District was granted $181,882 for wood energy projects from the Washington Department of Commerce. The agency announced $482,768 in grants on Nov. 5 from the Forest Products Financial Assistance Program to four proposed projects that provide heat, power, engineered fuel products and/or significant energy efficiency improvements. The program emphasizes projects that use woody biomass from forestry management activities and wood products manufacturing.

The grant allows San Juan Islands Conservation District to develop appropriate energy and biochar technologies to process woody biomass at different distances from town centers. This proposal includes a technology assessment, site analysis and conceptual design of an advanced wood energy microgrid gasifier system to generate heat and power for community facilities on Orcas.

All grants must be matched at least dollar-for-dollar with other sources of non-federal funding.

In August, San Juan Islands Conservation District held a meeting about forest management on San Juan Island. During the meeting, Energy Program Manager Ryan Palmateer said he believes a good plan for the future of San Juan County is combined heat and power production using biomass collected from across the islands. He explained that it is efficient, clean, economical and sustainable.

The energy produced by a biomass plant would be around 2.6 million kilowatt-hours per year, compared to Orcas Power and Light Company’s community solar project, which averages 5,000-kilowatt-hours per year, Palmateer explained.

“This is one piece in a multi-pronged approach to what I call island resource independence,” Palmateer said. “What can we use wisely as a resource and what can we leave natural and untouched?”

A project of this caliber would cost $3-8 million, but Palmateer said it would pay for itself in time.