About the project
Aerial view of Charter Street. Photo by Jeff Miller
As part of his commitment to stop burning coal at state-owned heating plants on Madison’s isthmus, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has proposed that the Charter Street Heating Plant (CSHP) in Madison switch from burning coal to burning a mixture of biomass, such as wood waste and agricultural residues, and natural gas.
The $250 million retrofit project would have transformed campus energy production and distribution by using a combination of biomass and natural gas to power the plant, which heats and cools some 300 buildings in the area.
In January 2011, the state announced its decision to pull the biomass boiler from the upgrade project at the campus heating plant on Charter Street and replace it with a natural gas boiler.
As part of our mission to foster bioenergy solutions, the WBI provided support to these projects and their ability to create renewable energy alternatives for the state, initiate new businesses in Wisconsin and help develop the biomass supply for an emerging bioeconomy. Particularly, we poured considerable effort into leading the supply chain development for the Charter Street project.
We have learned a great deal during the course of this project and intend to put our knowledge to good use. We confirmed that there is enough biomass in Wisconsin to supply biomass heating plant projects. This summer, we will publish a case study from the Charter Street project in the newly-launched online bioenergy atlas. We hope that our material can help make decisions for potential future projects.
The WBI will continue to support opportunities to build the bioeconomy in Wisconsin and encourage future bioenergy projects to provide a more sustainable, secure energy source for our state and the region.
