At the National Pheasant Fest of all places, there's talk of both feathers, and the future.
Among the dozen of booths at the event at Madison's Alliant Energy Center Exhibition Hall on Friday, a handful booths demonstrated management of hunting grounds, and the possible harvesting of those lands for biomass.
Pellets of wood and grass from hunting grounds are already being sold to heat small stoves. Now entire stalks of switchgrass could have a bigger purpose.
That's because a few miles away, Governor Jim Doyle said he wants the coal burning Charter Street heating plant on the UW-Madison campus to be converted to burn only biomass by 2012. Switchgrass is becoming the new coal.
"I'm very pleased to see it's on a fast track," said Jennifer Feyerherm with the Sierra Club. She was thrilled with Doyle's proposal. The group sued UW back in 2007, saying the plant violated clean air laws. A subsequent settlement allowed the state to find an alternative fuel source. On Friday, Doyle chose biomass.
"It addressed our air pollution problems, our clean water problems," said Feyerherm, "while providing clean sustainable energy for Wisconsin."
"Having the state do that creates the market for farmers to start producing switchgrass, biomass for this plant," said local environmental consultant Brett Hulsey.
"Southern Wisconsin is the Saudi Arabia of biomass," he added.
It is more expensive to plant and buy corn stalks, switch grass, and wood chips. Environmentalists like Hulsey, however, think future federal carbon regulations on coal will make biomass cheaper in the long run. The idea of a supposed "carbon tax" was briefly raised during the Presidential campaigns.
Department of Administration spokesperson Linda Barth said the estimated cost to re-engineer and replace the boilers at the Charter Street plant would cost about $200 to $300 million. Even if stimulus money doesn't pay for it, Doyle will place this in his budget proposal that's coming out later this month, so it will still go through the legislative process.
Both Feyerherm and Hulsey are happy about the bigger implications of the proposal on Charter Street. "That's why this is so very exciting," said Feyerherm. "It's a tangible solution that can be an example for other state heating plants."
Hulsey said there's enough biomass in Wisconsin to replace about half the coal burned in the state.
The hunters are getting giddy too. Along with shotguns and game trophies, the grass seeds and prairie harvesting machines are getting lots of attention.
"It's going to ramp up over time," said Joe Duggan, a marketer for the pheasant show, while speaking about biomass production on hunting lands. "It's going to ramp up wildly."
He said landowners find themselves now trying to manage the need for biomass like prairie grasses, with the ability to keep a habitat for the birds. He said questions they will have to answer include "When do you mowe, how long will it sit?"
There will be about a half dozen conferences on biofuel production this Saturday at Pheasant Fest.TimberBuySell.com
