Forest Resource Management

Our development planning begins in New Hampshire's forests. Before we build an energy facility, we conduct a resource study, carefully assessing the "carrying capacity" of area forests. We use this study to determine how large our energy facilities will be, ensuring our needs and area biomass availability are balanced.

Once we are up and running, our operations integrate with the existing forest-products industry. As forest owners identify low-grade trees for removal and chipping, we provide a market for this material. By removing excess material and the weed trees from the crop, more sunlight and water will be available to produce a higher-value timber stand. We can also use excess tops and limbs from higher-grade wood, further reducing waste and costs for forest owners. We aim to reward forest owners that use licensed foresters and good resource management practices by providing payments in return for environmentally responsible harvesting. This gives owners an extra incentive to do the right thing while guaranteeing a steady, consistent supply of biomass for our facilities.

How our plants work

The Process

Wood chips delivered to our facilities will undergo combustion and physical processes that extract energy from the renewable fuel source, creating heat, steam and electricity. The advanced systems specified will efficiently convert renewable fuel to energy using best available technologies in practical and dependable designs. The relatively homogenous nature of biomass wood fuel allows for a finely tuned combustion process that limits emissions below compliance criteria.

Heat from combustion is used to convert water into steam. Increasing pressure forces the steam through a steam turbine, turning an electric generator and creating electricity. Excess heat and steam can be used for other processes.

Useful Byproducts

Throughout the energy generation process, our facilities produce a number of byproducts that can be used for constructive purposes. This includes wood ash from the combustion process and C02 to aid plant growth, plus steam and hot water for industrial uses.

Wood pellets have become popular in Europe as an inexpensive and responsible way to provide home heating and may prove to be a practical way to heat homes in New England. Co-locating with wood-pellet facilities could offer synergistic opportunities that would make that process more efficient and economical, allowing a stronger and more diverse market for loggers.

One of the primary emissions from a Clean Power Development facility is carbon dioxide, or C02. While the total fuel cycle has a net zero carbon impact - carbon released when biomass is burned and recaptured by the new biomass growth in the forest - we have begun looking for ways to take advantage of the C02 we'd be producing immediately. One way we can do this is by building greenhouses. By channeling C02 into on-site greenhouses, we could greatly enhance the health and growth of a variety of profitable crops.

All of our facilities have a significant amount of waste heat in the circulating water system that can be recaptured for a number of useful purposes. Each site will offer specific opportunities related to the use of waste heat.

After the combustion process is complete, a small amount of ash remains. This ash can be used to help local farmers as a pH balancing agent. To learn more about this, please check out our Community Guide's Farming Impact section.

Integrating with the Community

Clean Power Development will take an "every-employee-as-a-stakeholder" philosophy, whereby health, safety and general well being for our employees is central to our operation strategy. We aim to provide comprehensive benefits, educational and advancement opportunities, and special incentives to reward successes.

Clean Power Development will establish policies and practices towards our host communities. This will encompass such things as our commitment for community participation, acoustical reduction strategies, ethical standards, and appropriate forest management support.

As we grow, we will continue to explore and expand our philosophies into policies and practices you can read about here. We are proud of what we aim to accomplish, and we look forwarding to being a part of your community.