MSAD 58 Schools Switching To Biomass Heating Systems

KINGFIELD (NEWS CENTER) --- The unpredictable costs of heating oil has prompted one Western Maine school district to try using a different source of fuel.

The Strong and Kingfield Elementary schools in RSU 58/SAD 58 are currently in the process of converting their heating systems to high performance biomass ones that run on wood pellets. Skaden Energy Inc. is performing the installation with the help of local contractors and a $1.08 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

According to School Superintendent Quenten Clark, three out of the district's five schools will be heated with wood thermal energy once the project is completed. He adds that those three schools would normally burn nearly 80,000 gallons of oil each year, and that the volatile cost of the product from season from season would sometimes present huge budgetary problems.

"We buy 110,000 gallons of oil a year," he said, "so if it goes up a dollar a gallon that basically means I have to eliminate two teachers from the budget. There isn't a lot of extra money these days."

Spokespeople for Skaden also claim that they see wood pellets as a more efficient means of heating not only because of their more stable cost but also because they can be manufactured and purchased locally.

"By buying the fuel locally, the money stays locally," said spokesman Dan Cashman of Cashman Communications, "so you're not just helping out with efficiency but you're helping out your friends and neighbors and colleagues and family members that are perhaps truck drivers, or loggers or are in any type of industry that could benefit from this fuel being purchased locally."

Superintendent Clark added some of those loggers are the parents of his students, "Those logs are harvested locally on local landowner's land. They're cut by people who are sending kids to my school and paying taxes to support my school."

Currently $11.4 million has been awarded to the Maine Department of Conservation through the American Resource and Recovery Act of 2009 for more schools to make the switch over to wood thermal energy. Skaden Inc. says it intends to help Maine municipalities and schools apply for that grant money.