Earth Equity News

Middlebury College Experiments for Willows for Biomass. By Dave Gram, AP, October 19, 2009. "Middlebury College used to heat its buildings with oil, then switched to wood chips. Now it has planted a sustainable and relatively cheap fuel source -- willow shrubs -- that could help cut demand on the state's forests. With a nine-acre patch of the fast-growing willows, the college is conducting a biomass energy experiment... [that may help address the concern that] wood chip-burning heat systems [contribute to] deforestation... Willows grow faster than other trees and branch out when pruned... The college now buys 20,000 tons of wood chips a year, mainly from loggers operating within 75 miles. That will provide about half the heat used by the campus -- the rest comes from heating oil -- and reduce Middlebury's $1.5 million annual oil bill by about $700,000."