Home Biomass Power Generators

TLouden writes "The Rocky Mountain News had an article today about Community Power Corp. and its new BioMax unit which uses renewable resources such as corncobs, sawdust pellets, and coconut shells to produce electricity. This gasifier unit isn't commercially available yet but we might be seeing it sometime in 2004."

Comments

Agricultural surplus

[2toise]

There is a huge amount of federal money that goes into maintaining a massive agricultural surplus here in the states - this could easily be switched over to subsidies for fuel crops instead of (for example) tobacco, as is presently the case.
It would not supply all the needs by any means, but would help.
At present much is shipped overseas as 'aid', but rarely is this the most cost effective way to get food to war stricken areas.

Biomass energy is already here and practical...

[qtp]

Well maybe it is in Iowa and Minnesota, but it has proven to be both efficient and profitable for small scale producers, as discussed here back in March.

The systems described in the main article do not sound very practical to me (800 degrees F. takes a lot of energy to maintain), but they are not the only example of biomass energy being put into practise, and they might be the right choice if you already have a lot of sawdust on hand (like in a lumberyard or a furniture fab).

Anything that reduces the dependency on foreign oil is good for the economy, and less dependency on large energy companies is good for the consumer. That these technologies allow small business to reduce thier cost of operation (or increase thier income) and are environmentally sound is good for everyone.