Kellogg,Idaho schools may use wood heat to save money

Voters in the Idaho Panhandle will decide Nov. 1 whether Kellogg becomes the latest Idaho school district to switch to using wood fuel to heat classrooms and avoid escalating natural gas prices.

A $9.5 million bond includes funding for a biomass system that burns wood chips, spindly trees, and fibrous organic debris to boil water for steam heating in school buildings. Voters will be asked to repay only $5.4 million of the bond amount, with the balance coming from grants, subsidies and a $3.3 million energy cost savings being guaranteed by the biomass boiler contractor, Siemens, over the course of the 20-year bond.

The fate of the Kellogg biomass bond is being watched by several school districts in the Pacific Northwest, said David Naccarato of Siemens. The company recently completed the first biomass installation in an Idaho school, with the Council School District in McCall expected to fire up its new wood-fired furnace Friday.

Full Story thanks to Headwaters News: http://www.headwatersnews.org/pr.woodheat092805.html