KMTR-TV in Eugene aired this story about the forest biomass energy system being installed in Elkton.

Kevin Weeks, Oregon Department of Forestry

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Elkton School District ditching diesel for cost cutting biomass boilers

(Chris McKee, KMTR-TV)

ELKTON, Ore. (KMTR) -- The Elkton School District is looking to save thousands of dollars a year in school heating costs, as it will soon switch to biomass boilers.

The district recently received a grant through the U.S. Federal Government’s stimulus program to replace boilers in the elementary school and high school.

Each boiler is around 40 years old, running on diesel fuel. Because of their age and what kind of fuel they’ve used, both boilers have become extreme inefficient and expensive for the school district to operate.

By the end of the summer, the Elkton School District’s maintenance crews will replace both diesel boilers with biomass burning boilers. Each will use wood-product pellets to heat the boilers, in turn, heating the schools.

Elkton School District officials say the cost savings will be huge. District Maintenance Manager Brian Kruse estimates it will cut fuel costs in half, saving between 17,000 and 25,000 dollars in fuel costs.

With grant funding from the state, through the Federal stimulus program, Kruse is excited for the project.

“It's huge because you know by ourselves we wouldn't be able to afford to do something like this, we'd have to continue paying the high cost of fuel, fuel costs, and in time that's just going to continue to escalate,” says Kruse.

The Elkton School District will have to take out some loans to pay for the full installation of the project. However, those loans should be paid off quickly with the costs savings from the fuel type switch, according to Mike Hughes, Superintendent for the Elkton School District.

Hughes says once the loans are paid off, the extra money saved by the project will stay in the school’s general fund, impacting students.

“They're doing field trips and being exposed to things that weren't happening before. I think it's very powerful, and eventually they're going to be doing a lot of hands on work out in the fields so they're not just going to be stuck in a classroom, they're going to be outside these four walls,” says Hughes.

One of the new programs Elkton Schools is working on now is natural resources curriculum for high school students. That’s being put together with the help of Oregon State University’s College of Forestry.

Work should begin to install the biomass boiler system by the end of the summer, with the system fully functional this winter.

While the new boiler system will primarily burn biomass, it will still function on diesel fuel as well, just in case there’s a biomass shortage, or the price of diesel becomes less than the price of wood pellets.

The Days Creek School District was also awarded grant money recently to install a similar biomass boiler system.

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