BRATTLEBORO — The Windham Regional Commission recently announced that competitive grant funding is available to assist commercial, nonprofit, or public entities in installing advanced wood heating systems through the Windham Wood Heat Initiative (WWH).
WWH will provide grant funding of up to 25 percent of the installation cost (including design, installation, and acquisition costs of advanced wood heating systems) and system components (i.e., controls, or thermal and fuel storage), with a maximum award of $100,000.
“It's so important for programs like these to support the transition of our heating load from fossil fuels to a local and renewable source,” said Program Manager Margo Ghia in a news release. “When we heat with fossil fuels, which most of our larger scale buildings do, 78 cents on the dollar leaves the region. When we can swap the fuel with wood, almost the inverse is true.”
She added that he purpose of WWH is “to retain wealth in the local economy, support forest health (bulk pellets, semi-dry chips, and green chips are sources from low-grade lumber and forestry byproducts), and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.”
Systems will need to be installed and commissioned by December 2021 and must be within Windham County.
The program will also pay for mandatory third-party commissioning (verification that all the parts are working together as intended) of all the installations.
Proposals are due Wednesday, Feb. 24.
WWH was established in 2015 with a group of local wood heat and building envelope experts with funding from the state of Vermont's Clean Energy Development Fund. Currently, 13 systems have been successfully installed, displacing more than 78,000 gallons of heating oil at schools, nonprofits, and public buildings.
More information on the projects and the program application can be found at windhamregional.org/energy/wwh.
For general information on advanced wood heat, visit feelgoodheat.org.