The UW-Madison Charter Street Heating Plant is currently a coal fired power plant but it is about to undergo a $251 million overhaul with the elimination of the coal use at the facility and replacing it with biomass and natural gas boilers. The facility currently burns 108,000 tons of coal each year providing steam and heating for the campus buildings of UW-Madison.

The new biomass boiler will be online in the heating plant before the end of 2013 and will be able to burn biomass fuel up to 250,000 tons a year. The fuel that will be used to fire the biomass boiler range from wood chips to switchgrass pellets. The current capacity of the plant is just under 10MW and it is to be assumed that the upgrade to biomass fuel will maintain this plant capacity.

In unveiling the proposed upgrade of the power plant, Governor Jim Doyle said, “This plan provides the roadmap for how we will change the way energy is produced and provided on Madison’s isthmus. The projects will create jobs, at first in the construction sector, and then long-term, as we create markets for alternative energy sources in Wisconsin, with the added bonus of significantly lowering greenhouse gas emissions from two state heating plants.”

The facility has 4 boilers at the moment, one of these will be installed to burn the biomass fuel while three of the coal-fired units will be updated to burn natural gas and another will be refitted to become a co-fired natural gas, biomass fueled boiler.

The upgrades will significantly reduce emissions at the facility after the improvements have been completed. Plant efficiency is expected to be improved by 5 to 10 per cent and a campus-wide control room will be installed at the plant.

Back in February, 2009 when the biomass upgrade was originally suggested, Doyle had this to say, “This new project will help build the biomass market in Wisconsin, keeping the money we spend on energy in the local economy and create green jobs in the area.”