WARRENTON GREEN INITIATIVE

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WARRENTON GREEN INITIATIVE

• PATH TO SUSTAINABILITY

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Background

• Launched in May 2006
• Goal Become the greenest, most sustainable
  community
• How Do what others are doing and then some
• Largest reduction of the carbon footprint in the
  shortest period of time 50 reduction by 2015
• Be the first community to produce its own
• electricity and fuel from renewable,
• sustainable resources

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THE PLAN

• Government actions leading the way - examples
• New aquatic center powered by solar and biogas
• Waste to energy plant
• Zoning for walkable, livable communities
• Business actions following close behind -
  examples
• Green building code
• Three new office buildings powered by geothermal
  energy
• New, 40,000 sq.ft. office building contains 40
  recyclable construction materials
• Household actions right in sync
• Town government newsletter, Town Crier,
  recommends ways to save energy and money
• use EnergyStar products
• install a programmable thermostat
• let the sun shine in
• inflate your tires

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THE PLAN

• Zero waste - dont waste the wastes
• Reduce, reuse, recycle
• Recycle wastes into energy for sustainability
• Lead by example and engage the community
• Getting there from here - examples of ways to
  reduce GHG
• Plant a tree - 2,000 lbs of GHG prevented
• Turn off unplug electrical appliances -1,000
  lbs annually p/household
• Wash clothes in cold water - 1,150 lbs annually
  per household
• Waste-to-energy plant - 75,000 tons annually
• Retrofit government buildings - 8,000 tons
  annually
• Change traffic lights to LEDs - 2,400 tons
  annually

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Local Energy Independence

• Communities can become energy-independent from
  wastes and residues found in their own backyards
• Technology has arrived to efficiently produce
  electricity and fuel from a variety of wastes
• There should be enough trash being dumped at the
  landfill that cannot be recycled to electrify
  every single home in the community
• Some towns in Europe are doing this through
  district heating plants
• Landfills represent a huge, untapped source of
  electricity and fuel
• 300 million tons of MSW and 300 million tons of
  CD are dumped at landfills
• Thats 30 million homes powered with green
  electricity or 20 billion gallons of ethanol

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Local Energy Independence

• The President and Congress want 36 billion
  gallons of renewable fuel, ethanol and biodiesel,
  by 2020
• Corn ethanol and biodiesel only gets us to 20
  billion gallons
• Food vs. fuel debate
• Ecology vs. fuel debate
• Communities can fill the gap
• Local energy production is much more efficient
  and less polluting than what we have now with
  large, centralized power plants and immense grid
  systems
• Small, 5 MW to 30 MW plants close to the consumer
  on distributed electricity are more secure, more
  reliable, and cheaper than 100 MW to 2,000 MW
  plants
• The price of trash and wastes is not subject to
  geopolitics and commodity traders

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LANDFILLS ARE LIABILITIES

• Turning a liability into an asset
• Accumulation of municipal solid waste is a
  serious problem with worldwide environmental
  consequences
• Land is becoming scarce and landfills are filling
  up
• For example, one of the L.A. county landfills
  will close in 2010 and the best option is to rail
  the MSW 120 miles into the Nevada desert
• Burying trash in a hole releases methane gas24
  times more toxic than carbon dioxideand leachate
  into the groundwater
• Every 2 tons of trash buried in a hole emits 1
  ton of greenhouse gases
• Our small plant will prevent 75,000 tons of GHG

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How Will It Work?

• The centerpiece is a public-private partnership
• A commercial company will build, operate, and
  maintain the plant
• The community will provide space for the plant
  at the municipal landfill
• Infrastructure is already in place
• Environmental permits have already been issued
• Landfill operating expenses will greatly
  decrease
• Less trash must be buried
• Less landfill maintenance will be required
• The community will realize a profit
• The sale of locally produced fuel
• The sale of electricity to the grid

Landfill maintenance never ends
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What Can Be Used?

• Almost anything
• Household trash
• MSW
• CD
• Restaurant waste
• Tree clippings
• Agricultural residues
• Sewer sludge
• Animal manures and wastes
• Used tires
• Auto shredded material

Put Warrenton on a low carbon diet. Mayor
George B. Fitch
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WASTES RESIDUES

• Municipal solid waste
• 75 to 80 organic of this
• Paper 35
• Yard trimmings 13
• Food scraps 12
• Plastics 12
• Commercial debris (construction demolition)
• 50 organic of this
• Wood 60
• Used tiresmuch higher carbon/BTU (22,000 vs.
  5,000 BTU)
• Restaurant wastes
• Oil filters
• High-moisture wastes
• Animal manures, including poultry litter
• The new Biogas Production Incentive Act should
  greatly spur this development
• Sewer sludge
• The technology is not quite there to be able to
  combine high-moisture and low-moisture
  wastesright now, they need separate operations

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Preliminary Screening Feedstock Summary Table
50 mi. radius
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Primary Mill Wood Residues Potential Key
Supplier

• Companies that showed potential as being key
  suppliers were contacted directly. Three
  companies in particular were selected and are
  listed below.

• Rock Hill Lumber, Culpeper VA This company is a
  sawing and planning mill. They generate 1,000
  tons/month of green chips at a price of 24/ton
  and 700 tons/month of sawdust at 12.50/ton.
  Delivery costs range between 2.50-3.00/ton.
  Rock Hill can offer guaranteed consistent
  delivery to Warrenton at reduced prices for a
  steady supply.
• Merrilat, Culpeper VA This furniture
  manufacturing company disposes of a large amount
  of wood wastes (skids, doors, boards). The
  material is currently sent to the Culpeper
  transfer station to be landfilled. Merrilat is
  very interested in working out a deal with
  Warrenton for the wood wastes.
• North American Housing Corp., Front Royal, VA
  NAHC constructs modular homes and in the process
  generates much wood waste. There is no current
  market for the wastes which are sent to the Front
  Royal landfill. This company would be willing to
  negotiate with Warrenton for the material.

Monthly wood waste supply estimates are currently
being sought from Merrilat and NAHC.
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Benefits

• This not your traditional waste-to-energy plant
  with tall smokestakes burning garbage.
• There are hardly any emissions and it is well
  within EPA and State environmental regulations.
• The closed loop biomass plant will
• generate its own power
• require not one ounce of fossil fuels
• produce negligible particulate emissions
• pay for itself, not require taxpayer
  dollars                
• make a community energy independent
• be scalable as more feedstocks are captured
• not divert food crops like corn and beans to
  make renewable fuels
• capture methane leaking from landfills
• free up space needed for landfills
• return idle farmaland into production of
  dedicated energy crops
• reduce the carbon footprint for the community

Modern waste-to-energy plant
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ECONOMICS OF WASTE TO ENERGY

• A small-scale plant must have negative feedstock
  cost
• The tipping fee must go to the plant
• Revenues from tipping fees produce almost as much
  as the revenue from electricity sales
• Capital costs are very high, so operating costs
  must be low
• If we can afford large negative feedstock costs
  from MSW and CD,then we can afford to buy other
  feedstocks like wood chips
• If we get paid a tipping fee of 40/ton to take
  MSW and CD, then we can affordto pay 25/ton
  for wood chips
• Operating costs can be kept low by a low-interest
  loan from the Rural Utilities Service of the USDA
• 5 interest and a 35-year term vs. 9.5 interest
  and 20 yearsfrom private sourceswould reduce
  debt payments by nearly 1 million per year
• The gasification process yields 1,100 KWH per ton
  of MSW vs. 300 KWH from traditional mass-burn
  (incinerator) plants. The plasma process yields
  1,500 KWH but at a higher capital cost.

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