FARMINGTON – A plan to heat most of the University of Maine at Farmington buildings with a single biomass heating plant was approved by the UMaine System Board of Trustees Monday, with planners meeting today to discuss the project.
The $11 million proposal is to build a 5,800-square-foot biomass boiler plant in Parking Lot 9, located off Quebec Street on university property. The plant, consisting of a 500-horsepower wood chip boiler, connected to an electrostatic precipitation device and a smokestack, would pump 210-degree Fahrenheit water through a 12,000-foot loop. Connected to that loop would be heat exchangers in 24 UMF buildings, representing most of the campus. Additionally, UMF has offered to include the nearby Community Center in the project.
Buildings connected to the loop would have their preexisting heating systems either replaced or modified, depending on age. Some of the newer systems would be maintained to provide some additional heating input into the system.
Buildings that would not be connected include the new Education Center, which runs chiefly off geothermal, as well as residential-sized facilities located away from the loop, including the Honors building, the Senior Art Center and the Maguire Street locations. Preble Hall would be connected to the heating plant to augment heat garnered through a series of geothermal wells.
The Community Center would be connected if Farmington is willing to pay the $90,000 connection cost. With an estimated payback of approximately 7.5 years, selectmen expressed interest in the offer when it was discussed at a meeting on Jan. 13, and moved to further research the idea. The same offer was extended to the Farmington Public Library, engineers said today, but it appeared that capital costs might prohibit that institution connecting the loop. Either the Community Center or Library could connect at a later date.
The $11 million project is expected to have a 10-year payback for UMF, reducing the campus’ fossil fuel consumption by 90 percent. Dirigo Architectural Engineering LLC, based in Turner, is managing the project.
The building would be slightly less than 25-feet tall to the eave, consisting of a pre-engineered steel structure with a brick skirt and metal roof. It would include a combined control room/viewing area, which could be accessed by students in class, as well as the boiler and associated equipment, such as the electrostatic precipitation device. That device would filter the plant’s exhaust to below the Environmental Protection Agency-mandated .025 part-per-million limit. Exhaust, which would typically be clear or include a small amount of steam according to planners, would then exit a 50-foot smokestack located to the north of the building, between the plant and a berm in the parking lot.
Three loading bays would give trucks access to a 120-ton storage bunker for wood chips, which would be conveyed via a belt into the boiler. That storage capacity would be capable of heating all participating structures for four days at peak capacity.
The plan also includes space to add another, smaller boiler in the future, should UMF’s needs change. This could occur as the heating systems in various buildings that feed into the loop begin going offline due to age.
Following Monday’s Board of Trustees’ approval, the next step will be for the project to go before the Farmington Planning Board on Feb. 9.
Do they have plans to add more parking lots to help with the parking problem and get cars off the street. They can’t just keep getting rid of parking for buildings and art, parking is a problem in Farmington and UMF needs to do there part to help with this problem. As we look to the future lets keep this in mind…
No one that travels in or tries to park in Farmington in or around UMF would dispute that there is a problem. I would only like to point out that the lot in question #9 is only used for resident student parking and then only rarely. In all my trips around this lot I have never seen it to be more than 1/3 full
so yes the ON campus parking near the buildings used for teaching classes must be increased by the collage but I don’t think this heating plant should be held hostage by this issue,
My concern would be the accessibility for the daily truck traffic delivering the chips. These are small streets that see almost no heavy truck traffic now. How will they handle the constant 50 ton tractor trailers?
along with the truck traffic, what about those of us that live near lot 9, how loud will this be, what about air quality, property values. there are a lot of questions on this. it just doesn’t seem to be the right location for this.
As a student at UMF and community member I have looked into this heating plan into great detail compared to other options. I understand the concerns but feel these issues have been addressing and will not be an issue. The biomass heating system will be a economy booster for the area both in the short and long term by creating jobs during the construction phase and the wood will come from local loggers promoting the local wood industry in the long term. This will also save the university and community center, if it is connected, a great deal of money allowing UMF to allot limited funds to better education rather than wasting money on inefficent heating. Many people at UMF including myself have done thorough assessments to ensure this will not cause problems for the local community. Truck traffic has been taken into consideration and the placement of the biomass building has been strategically determined based on accessibility, estetics, parking space and to minimize any intrusion to local residents. Air quality and noise have also been taken into consideration will have minimal impact. This is a huge step for UMF and Farmington to make an effort to plan for a sustainable future and I firmly believe will bring about a lot of positive change for UMF and the community. Also, this will allow UMF students and local students to tour the facilty and learn more about sustainable energy and provide many educational benefits in addition to the financial benefits.