Posted: 01.21.2011

The state has ended plans to convert a Madison
power plant to run on biomass fuels such as wood chips.

The Charter Street Heating Plant on the University of
Wisconsin-Madison campus uses coal-fired burners that will be
retired next year. The burners were to be replaced with two boilers
that run on natural gas, as well as a boiler that would burn
biomass.

Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch said
yesterday that plans for the biomass boiler have been scrapped. He
says the decision will save taxpayers about $100 million in
construction costs.

The natural-gas burners will remain.

Sierra Club spokeswoman Jennifer Feyerherm calls the decision
short-sighted. She says the biomass would have come from Wisconsin
growers, and now that that money will instead be shipped out of
state.

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