According to a report published this past week by the Portsmouth Herald, Portsmouth, N.H., USA, Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH) is celebrating the eighth anniversary of its Northern Wood Power biomass unit at Schiller Station. Northern Wood Power became operational in December 2006, permanently replacing a 50-MW coal-burning boiler with an environmentally-friendly system that uses clean wood chips for fuel. It has earned state, regional, national, and international awards for its innovation and positive environmental changes.

 

"Northern Wood Power has provided customers with clean energy and tremendous value during its first eight years of commercial operation," said Bill Smagula, PSNH VP–generation. "Its success is a tribute to all of the great effort put forth by many PSNH employees and the work of our local foresters."

 

In its first eight years, Northern Wood Power’s achievements have included more than 2.5 billion KW hours of renewable energy produced and delivered to PSNH customers and the regional energy market; more than 4 million tons of clean wood chips consumed, displacing coal and adding more than $330 million to the regional economy.

 

The Northern Wood Power boiler now generates enough electricity to power approximately 50,000 New Hampshire homes and reduces air emissions due to it being one of the cleanest burning boilers in New England. Northern Wood Power reports that the majority of the wood consumed comes from carefully managed local forest waste unusable by other regional forest-based industries, including 60% from New Hampshire, 30% from Massachusetts, and 10% from Maine.

 

More information on Northern Wood Power and PSNH’s renewable energy efforts is available online.