Energy Technology Innovation Partnership Project
The Town of Chebeague was accepted to the Department of Energy's Energy Technology Innovation Partnership Project, which provides technical assistance to coastal, island, and remote communities. In collaboration with clean energy experts, the Chebeague Climate Action Team is working to plan a path forward towards a more sustainable and resilient local energy system.
Project Direction
Biomass Management
As it stands, Chebeague's wood debris is managed as waste. Every year, residents and commercial contractors dump hundreds of tons of wood waste at the transfer station. As brush volume grows larger and larger at the transfer station, so too does the wildfire risk to our community. With climate change come warmer temperatures, more severe and prolonged drought, and more lightning--increasing our vulnerability to wildfires. Plus, we can expect biomass volumes to grow in future years as new insect outbreaks increase tree mortality. Managing wood waste at the transfer station is a public safety necessity, but it comes at a great cost to the town. All biomass has to be chipped and barged off island, and the bills have climbed substantially in recent years.
​
CCAT has decided use ETIPP's technical assistance to investigate an alternative approach, treating biomass not as waste but as a resource. Though still in the project scoping phase, the team intends to explore a variety of biomass combustion technologies that could eliminate the need for off-island disposal and produce usable electricity and/or heat in the process. The aim is to identify a potential path forward to cost-effectively mitigate a public safety hazard and to increase our energy resilience in turn. Diversification will be important for reliability in communities powered by clean, renewable energy, so we look forward to learning whether biomass could be a piece of the puzzle here on Chebeague. Stay tuned for updates on our progress and ways to get engaged with the ETIPP process.