John Scarffe, Gilpin County. During the Seventh Annual Bioenergy Day on Wednesday, October 23, beginning at 1 p.m. at the Public Works Building, 255 Braecher Park Road, in Mid-Gilpin County, the county explained its energy goals and gave tours of the building’s energy efficient facilities. The event featured a lunch buffet and tours of the facility’s biomass heating system as well as information tables for alternative energy options in Gilpin County.

Gilpin County Commissioner Gail Watson helped organized the lunch, which included a variety of sub sandwiches including ham and provolone; salami, capriccio and provolone; a veggie sandwich; cookies and apples. A zero-waste event with the exception of some food packaging, the event used compostable plates and napkins, reusable serving platters, recyclable aluminum cans and composted any food scraps.

Watson explained that the event promoted the county’s energy goals. By January 2020, all Gilpin County Facilities will use 100 percent wind generated electricity.

The majority of county buildings are in the United Power Service area, so the county will become a Green Power Partner and use the capital credits received to pay for the Green Power blocks. The Old Courthouse in Central City is in the Excel Windsource program. Excel’s mission is to be 60 percent carbon free by 2026 and 100 percent carbon free by 2050.

Gilpin County’s mission is to provide responsive services for residents and visitors to protect, maintain and enhance the county’s unique community, historic and cultural heritage and mountain environment. The county focuses on health, safety and well-being, partnerships, community engagement and effective use of public resources.

Watson explained that United Power and Excel Energy were partners in the effort. Each company set up displays for the event. Xcel offered heating efficiency programs and energy saving guides for industrial operations. For more information, call 855-839-8862.

United Power offered information about commercial, industrial and residential rebates for energy efficiency and the Battery Storage Project. Constructed with Tesla Power Pack technology, the project offers scalable battery storage for utility and commercial applications designed for performance, safety and reliability. For more information, call 303-659-0551 or go to www.unitedpower.com.

Gilpin County Facilities Manager Dirk Matthews provided a tour of the Public Works facility biomass system. The 21,625-feet building cost $4.89 million to construct, according to background. The county paid cash for the land in 2006 using gaming tax revenues and paid cash for the building, also using gaming tax revenue, so no mill levy or increase in property taxes was needed.

“The building uses a variety of renewable energy methods, including clerestory lighting and heating with a combination of used motor oil, solar ventilation pre-heating, snowmelt aprons, air-to-air heat recovery, programable controls for radiant heaters, skylights and lighting controls,” according to background. The county would have paid $244,000 in up-front costs for a natural gas boiler.

The building needs about 350 to 400 green tons of chips per year. That requires thinning between 20 to 40 acres per year, or clear cutting three to five acres of dead forest. Green chips cost $37 per ton, and the total cost to heat the new Road and Bridge building with chips for one year have been estimated at between $15,600 and $25,000 with an estimated savings over natural gas at $30,000.

Advantages of the biomass facility include improving forest health through thinning beetle-killed trees, which will not promote spreading the beetles. During normal operations, the system produces very little or no emissions, and does not contribute to greenhouse gasses or global warming in the same way fossil fuels do. Burning biomass releases carbon dioxide that is from the current carbon cycle, so it creates no increase. The carbon dioxide that is released will be absorbed by new trees as the forest re-grows.

During the tour of the biomass system, Matthews explained that the huge boiler with a bottom and top compartment burns between 1,000 to 1,200 pounds of wood per week efficiently. The top part of the boiler includes fire tubes, which feed into a collector, and the ashes drop down into a small bucket from there.

A lot of the ashes stay in the top part of the furnace, but it is also necessary to rake out the ashes from the boiler and place them in a bucket. All of the ashes are kept for one week. The ashes get mixed into projects where dirt is needed.

The timber for the boiler comes from fire mitigation projects, especially in Forest Service lands, but the county also buys timber from local homeowners, Matthews said. “It’s a very cost -effective way of heating the building.”

Gilpin County residents, staff and Gilpin County Commission Chair Linda Isenhart packed the event. With snow falling, the event ended by 3 p.m.

(Originally published in the October 31, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)