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The Fuels for Schools
and Beyond Program
About the Program
The Montana State Fuels for Schools and Beyond Program is a partnership between Montana DNRC, USDA Forest Service State and Private Forestry and Bitter Root RC&D Area, Inc. to promote and facilitate the use of forest biomass waste for energy in public buildings. Additional collaborators include Northwest Regional RC&D, Headwaters RC&D, North Central RC&D, school administrators and other state agencies.
Our partnership within the 6-State Fuels for Schools and Beyond Program extends to include State Foresters of Idaho, Utah, Nevada, North Dakota and Wyoming, CTA Architects and Engineers, the non-profit Biomass Energy Resource Center, and increasingly, other state and federal agencies and RC&Ds across the nation.
The Fuels for Schools Initiative came out of directives of the National Fire Plan of 2001 which included specific grant dollars under Economic Action Programs (under State and Private Forestry in the Northern and Intermountain Regions of the USDA Forest Service) for pilot projects to demonstrate new uses of small diameter and under-utilized woody material, as well as projects using proven technologies to use such material. The intent of this focused funding was to develop new markets for woody material that has historically been considered waste, so that the substantial cost of thinning hazardous fuels, which generates little in the way of what is traditionally considered "commercial" timber, could be partially offset by the economic value of "non-commercial" biomass. Program funding for Fuels for Schools began in October of 2002 with State and Private Forestry formally announcing their strategy in June of 2004. More on Program Strategy.
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Origin
After the wildfires in the summer of 2000, which burned over 350,000 acres and 70 structures in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, a resident of Darby, Montana began to research ways in which to tie fire hazard reduction work with economic development in the valley. He became familiar with biomass heat in Scandinavia and Europe, and also learned that a number of schools in the Northeastern United States had been heating with wood waste for about 20 years. He raised the idea with local community leaders of using slash (or tree limbs, tops and branches) from fuels reduction projects for heat in Darby's schools.
With an Economic Action Program, grant and assistance from the Bitter Root RC&D, the USFS Forest Products Laboratory, and the Biomass Energy Resource Center, a biomass boiler system was planned, designed and installed at Darby Schools, which began heating with biomass in the fall of 2003. Following the successful implementation of the Darby project, the Fuels for Schools program was developed to expand the concept of biomass heat using fuels reduction waste to other schools throughout the State & Private Forestry program in the Northern and Intermountain Regions. The Bitter Root RC&D became a key partner in the development of the program.
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Strategy
The strategy of the Fuels for Schools Initiative follows three phases working towards the goal of making biomass heat a mainstream option, using government investment as a catalyst. The three phases are: 1) Demonstration; 2) Expansion; and 3) Privatization.
Phase 1: Demonstration
During this phase, the Program provided substantial initial investment to get a few systems installed in the state, creating local places where people could see a biomass boiler system in operation and learn how it works. The first system installation in Darby Schools, Montana was fully funded and that high level of investment has surely paid off. Darby schools' facilities manager and students have given dozens of tours of the facility, experimented with a variety of fuel types, gathered data on maintenance and operations, and tested the concept of stockpiling wood fuel. We also made large non-competitive investments at Thompson Falls Schools to demonstrate a smaller, simpler system, and at schools in Philipsburg and Victor to add additional demonstration sites.
The next round of grants was the competitive Request for Proposals in early 2005, in which we selected a variety of projects to demonstrate different applications of biomass heat. In this round, we offered a maximum of $400,000 or 50% of the construction and installation costs of the project. We selected our first college campus in the program at UM Western in Dillon, two demonstrations that would burn "all tree" pellets made from slash wood waste in Townsend and Troy Schools, and our first project incorporated into a new construction in Kalispell's new Glacier High School.
Phase 2: Expansion
We are now in the Expansion phase of the Montana program as we are witnessing increased interest and additional biomass system installations across the western region and beyond. Montana DNRC opened up a second round of competitive grants in 2006, but at a reduced level of support at 25-35% of project costs. Those grants were awarded to school installations in Eureka and Deer Lodge. By continuing to offer grants as an incentive, we reduce the risk for early adopters, continue to increase the knowledge base and awareness of biomass to become a commonplace option to consider when choosing a heating system. Another of our goals in the Expansion phase is to create clusters or geographic groupings of small biomass heating systems around the state, to help make the processing and delivery of wood fuel more economically viable and efficient. We are also exploring the potential for larger-scaled user of wood biomass for energy such as co-generation of heat and power and district biomass energy systems for business and residential complexes.
During this phase, we have also been successful in identifying financial resources outside of the Forest Service grants, which facilities have successfully employed to supplement the financing of their biomass boiler installations. This includes resources such as rural development grants and no-low interest loans, carbon offset funding, performance contracting with energy service companies, private foundation grants and more. Learn more about the Fuels for Schools Carbon Offset Program
Learn more about our projects.
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Phase 3: Privatization
We are currently moving from phase 2 to phase 3. The third and final phase in our strategy is Privatization. In this phase we will have completely phased out grant support but continue offering technical advice and assistance. Our assistance will include helping people in private as well as public sectors to identify potential funding sources, conduct fuel supply assessments, and determine project feasibility, as well as sharing knowledge and networking.
More on our strategy in this Business Outlook publication.
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Partners
USDA Forest Service State & Private Forestry
The 6-State Fuels for Schools and Beyond program is managed by staff with USDA Forest Service State & Private Forestry (S&PF). As one of the four major organizational components of the Forest Service, S&PF provides grant funds and technical assistance to state forestry organizations to support the conservation and management of state, tribal and non-industrial private forest lands with projects such as hazardous fuels reduction, fire rehabilitation, forest health, and economic development and recovery. For more information on the USDA Forest Service, State & Private Forestry, the Economic Action Program, and the National Fire Plan, search the USFS website
Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Areas, Inc.
The Montana FFS&B program has formal agreements of collaboration with Bitter Root RC&D, Northwest Regional RC&D, Headwaters RC&D and North Central RC&D who provide local support and administrative assistance to FFS&B biomass boiler projects in their region while also conducting outreach to interested parties.
The Resource Conservation and Development Program falls under the authority of the USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). RC&D's typically span several counties and are quasi-governmental non-profit entities which work to improve economic activity and enhance the environment through a broad mission that includes everything from environmental education to economic development and natural resource utilization. View more on the Montana RC&D Program.
Additional Partners
Fuels for Schools - 6 State Program
CTA Architects & Engineers
Biomass Energy Resource Center
Montana Community Development Corporation
