MWCC to Coordinate 11-State Federal Grant Program

GARDNER -- Mount Wachusett Community College today announced that the Forest and Wood Products Institute has been chosen to coordinate a biomass education project for 11 state energy offices in the Northeast region. The program is funded by two grants totaling $120,000 from the US Department of Energy (DOE).

As program coordinator, Forest and Wood Products Institute Associate Director Rob Rizzo will help each state develop workshops, collect data from each state to generate quarterly reports for the DOE, and host a regional meeting.

Each state will decide its target audience and present two workshops to increase participants’ understanding of the environmental and economic benefits of using bio-based fuels and products.

“This project is a natural continuation of Mount Wachusett Community College’s leadership role in the development of renewable energy,” said MWCC President Daniel M. Asquino. “I hope this project will demonstrate how, cooperatively, we can reduce our dependence on foreign fossil fuels.”

The Forest and Wood Products Institute was created by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1996 to improve the sustainability and utilization of the state’s renewable forest resource. In addition, the institute strives to advance the development and increased use and affordability of biomass and related renewable energy resources.

Under Asquino’s direction, MWCC has demonstrated its commitment to biomass renewable energy since the winter of 2002-2003, when it began heating the campus buildings by burning wood in its biomass plant. The college plans to use an advanced, pre-commercial biomass technology to provide the heat, air-conditioning, and electricity in its future child care center. The Forest and Wood Products Institute manages both projects.

“The college is one of the driving forces in the Northeast region to get state agencies to see the importance of using bio-based fuels and products,” Rizzo said.

The two DOE grants were secured by the Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. State agencies, colleges and large industrial users from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont will participate in the grant programs.

The Northeast Regional Biomass Program, one of five regional biomass energy programs created and funded by the DOE, and comprised of the 11 participating states, as well as the Biobased Manufacturers Association and New Uses Council will help develop the workshops.

For more information on Mount Wachusett Community College’s Forest and Wood Products Institute, now located in the college’s Robert D. Wetmore Center for Innovation in Design, Technology & Resource Development, visit http://www.mwcc.mass.edu/programs/FWP/default.html.

For information on the Northeast Regional Biomass Program, visit http://www.nrbp.org/whoweare.htm#.

For information on the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy initiatives, visit http://www.eere.energy.gov/RE/bioenergy.html.

Kimberly Caisse
Staff Writer
(978) 630-9564 / fax: (978) 630-9561
kcaisse@mwcc.mass.edu

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