Randolph Turned Down For Heat District Grant

Randolph will not be receiving the multi-million-dollar grant to jump-start a proposed central heating district that would serve much of the village with wood-fired heat. At least not yet.

The grant application was approved by the selectboard and submitted in July to the U.S. Department of Energy. It was written by the Randolph Area Community Development Corp. (RACDC) and relied on a $50,000 study completed by the Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC) in Montpelier.

If the application had been successful, the $18-million grant would have paid for half of a pioneering wood-heating district that would potentially provide all the heating needs of businesses and residences in most of Randolph village, south of the White River.

Supporters said that such a system would give those businesses and residences greater independence from the fluctuations of oil prices and could create jobs from businesses attracted by that energy independence.

Julie Iffland, executive director of RACDC, confirmed last week that the town was not successful in its grant request. In fact, she said, no biomass energy proposals were funded by the department during this round of grants.

She said she was “not surprised” that Randolph was not funded, as there was tremendous competition for the grant money, which had been set aside for sustainable energy production.

The projects that were funded, Iffland noted, were more “shovel-ready” than Randolph’s proposal.

Nonetheless, the town will participate in further studies of the idea, she said, funded by a $41,300 state grant that was announced recently.

Not a New Idea

Although municipal heating districts are virtually unheard of in this country, they are common in several European countries, especially in towns about the size of Randolph. Also, such systems are very common in Vermont schools, including Randolph Union High School, which saved $140,000 last year alone with its wood-chip heating burner.

Figures developed by the BERC study showed that if oil prices stay around $2.50 per gallon, the heating district would be about a break-even proposition. If oil prices increase to $3.50 or $4 a gallon, however, Randolph homeowners and businesses could save many millions of dollars on heating expenses over the next decade.

Another advantage would be that much more of the money spent for heat would stay in or near the community, instead of flowing to oil producers around the world, backers say.

The RACDC annual meeting devoted an hour of discussion to the concept of district heating. The meeting heard from Timothy M. Maker of Montpelier, author of BERC’s guide to wood-chip heating systems.

More information about community biomass heating may be found at:

www.biomasscenter.org.