Creating "Economically Sustainable" Energy

To be truly sustainable, energy producers must address not only the environmental needs but the economic needs of a community. By relying on local resources for fuel, we aim to make energy production a catalyst for local economic growth. We are working towards beneficial relationships with local industries, and we are looking for ways our power plants can address the specific abilities and needs of each community we serve. With a Clean Power Development biomass plant, the money spent on energy costs gets circulated back into your community, providing local jobs and enhancing local industries.

The Numbers

In 2002, Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC completed a detailed report describing the impact of wood-fueled power in New Hampshire. They based their calculations on six wood-fired power generation facilities and sustainable wood-gathering practices. After considering factors including payroll, wood gathering, taxes, and general overhead, their findings showed the impact to New Hampshire's economy would equal approximately $96 million each year.

The report used "multipliers" to reach this estimate, designed to show the economic benefit from the circulation of the money the facilities would spend. The multipliers describe the "ripple effect" of the biomass energy facilities on the local economies of New Hampshire. Because of the labor-intensive nature of fuel collection, they estimated the $26 million spent on fuel collection alone would carry a multiplier of 2.95, producing a total impact of approximately $70 million. This ripple effect would also be felt from jobs and other expenses associated with plant operation. The report estimated that the more than $14 million spent on other aspects of plant operation would carry a 1.84 multiplier, producing an economic impact of approximately $26 million.

Local Relationships

At the core of economic and environmental sustainability is communication. We share common interests with other New Hampshire organizations including the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, the New Hampshire Farm Bureau, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, and the New Hampshire Wildlife Federation. As organizations that rely on our natural resources, we share a common long-term conservation ethic. By providing a market for low-end fiber, we help make responsible and sustainable practices economically viable for the owners of New Hampshire's forests.

Wood Ash as a farming resource

It is a challenging time to be a local farmer. Competition from larger farms and increasing operating costs are making it more difficult than ever to operate profitable small farms. Wood ash from Clean Power Development facilities will go a long way towards reducing the cost of soil maintenance.

As crops are grown, soil can become too acidic, reducing the ability of plants to extract nutrients from the ground. To counter this process, farmers are forced to apply pH adjusters like lime, which can become very expensive. One of the chief byproducts of our biomass plants is wood ash, a cheap and effective alternative pH adjusting agent. Applied properly, wood ash provides the same stabilizing effects as lime and at a greatly reduced cost to local farmers (for a comprehensive overview of the impacts and considerations involved in applying wood ash, please check out Wood Ash Use in Forestry - A Review of the Environmental Impact from the Oxford's Forestry Journal).

Forest Preservation

If forestry professionals cannot afford to maintain their property, the land will be sold and subdivided, and large tracks of forest will disappear. This simple reality exposes the tie between economically viable and environmentally sustainable land management. A Clean Power Development project provides steady demand for biomass that is a byproduct of higher-value forest harvesting activity, providing forestry professionals a more complete and profitable way to manage their forest stock. Combined with responsible forestry practices, this cooperative relationship will help conserve and sustain New Hampshire's forests.

Reduced Environmental Footprint

Our designs incorporate technologies and practices that ensure minimal air emission. Through the use of strictly controlled combustion, advanced emission control systems, and efficient byproduct use, our goal over time is to make the entire process - transportation, wood harvesting, combustion, and power generation - a carbon neutral process.

Blending with the New England Ecology

Clean Power Development is committed to the philosophy that biomass energy facilities do not need to have a traditional "industrial" appearance. Beyond all the other attributes of our projects, we are committed to a facility appearance that will blend well with the rural or agrarian settings chosen for our sites. As much as possible, we want our projects to be picture-postcard attractive. We call this exclusive Clean Power Development strategy and approach "Successful Farm." It is our intention that tourists who drive by or fly over a Clean Power Development facility would wonder, "what crop or animal are they raising?"

Water Conservation

Water is one of our most valuable resources, and an essential ingredient in power generation. Our plants minimize water use through an advanced reverse osmosis membrane technology. This technology allows us to reclaim the water we have utilized and recycle it back through the plant. In addition to drastically lowering our water use, this produces near zero effluent discharge from our facility, ensuring rivers, lakes, and groundwater resources stay pure. This in-house recycling system also allows us to capture storm drain as makeup water, further reducing our overall water consumption.

achieving energy independence

We are not the only ones who are a bit upset that so much of the money we pay towards energy costs ends up in foreign countries. This shared sentiment has led to a call for energy independence, for energy solutions that eliminate our need for foreign petroleum - and eventually fossil fuels all together. We believe environmentally and economically sustainable power plants must form the anchor of the energy independence initiative.

Reducing our oil and fossil fuel use will take many forms, from more electric vehicles to the use of geothermal heat pumps. As these technologies come online, they will shift our energy demands from oil and gas to the electrical grid. Renewable and sustainable power plants must be online for this transition to be a true step towards energy independence. Otherwise, we are simply moving the problem around. Through utilization of regional biomass supply, Clean Power Development will create power from locally managed natural resources. This helps diversify our nation's energy portfolio while reducing our need for foreign and environmentally harmful fuel sources.