COOK COUNTY LOCAL ENERGY PROJECT - DISTRICT HEAT & POWER - BIOMASS PROJECT OVERVIEW

Cook County Local Energy Project (CCLEP) and Cook County Firewise Committees along with the involvement of the City and County are proposing to create a district heat and power system in Grand Marais to heat such County buildings as the hospital, school, law enforcement center, courthouse as well as other buildings such as the proposed new Community Center and pool.

Grand Marais Biomass District Heat and Binary Co-generation Power Feasibility Study (3.53 MB)

District Heating/Energy is:

• A centralized heating plant with hot water distribution to a concentration of buildings

Through economy of scale, district heat facilitates:

• Lower fuel costs and higher fuel efficiencies
• Co-generation (that is, combined heat and power - 700 KW in this case
• More effective pollution control
• Opportunities to utilize renewable fuel

Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ

As the system is expanded, businesses and homes will also be included.

All this will be done by burning waste wood and leftover slash from completed timber sales, wood that is presently just being burned in big piles by Forest Service personnel.

No saleable round wood will be used by this unit.

This technology is carbon neutral. Switching to this biomass unit from the propane and fuel oil presently being burned will reduce CO2 emissions equivalent to removing about 6000 cars from our roadways.

The technology itself is designed by an Italian firm, Turboden, recently purchased by the United States company, Pratt and Whitney. Turboden has successfully installed 111 plants in towns all over Italy, Austria and Germany.

These systems are successfully heating whole communities similiar to ours. The track record is one of success.

This new technology filters 80 percent of particulent emissions as it leaves the second burn chamber and catches 95 percent of the remainder through an additional electrostatic filter before it leaves the stack. There are virtually no particulent emissions.

The amount of material this unit will burn per year when fully implemented will cost about $500,000 and it will be going to local loggers and truckers throughout Cook County.

That money stays here, in Cook County.

Money currently being paid for propane and fuel oil mostly just goes out of the county. It is a drain on our economy each and every year.

Cook County residents and businesses have no control over the volatile price fluctuations of fossil fuels. This project would give us a stable local price for heating needs.

This system will be like getting over a half a million dollar stimulus package for Cook County each and every year. That amount will grow as energy costs grow.

The biomass fuel infrastructure created through this system will also create the opportunity for smaller units to spring up in Lutsen, Tofte, Grand Portage and other areas throughout the County.

This project was a late-comer in the 1% sales tax initiative.

A $5.6million dollar revenue bond is a very large burden for the City to take on for a project with County wide benefits. Seed money from the County for this project from the 1% sales tax initiative would be money prudently spent for an infrastructure that would benefit all of its citizens year after year after year, and also help support yearly operational expenses incurred from other projects being discussed for approval.


Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ

Submit a question.

Photos from a Turboden Plant in Europe