Why Use Biofuel?
Why not use what we have lots of:
Burning wood has kept mankind warm and cooked our food for a very long time.
All plants are very efficient solar collectors. They use light to store carbohydrates that can be burned when needed. Plants collect solar energy even on a cloudy day and dry wood can be stored until needed.
Sauk County has about 250,000 acres of forest, plus huge numbers of trees in our communities and around home sites.
A vigorous forest can grow 3-5 tons of dry wood per acre each year – capable of producing energy equal to about 400 gallons of diesel fuel, 2 tons of coal, 50,000 cubic feet of natural gas, or 15 million watt hours of electricity.
Just the energy from the waste wood (50% of the total volume of a tree) from the trees in Sauk County is about the same as 60,000,000 gallons of diesel fuel.
Agricultural waste is a similar amount.
1,000 acres of farmland growing 5 dry tons/year of biofuel could produce energy about the same as 500,000 gallons of diesel fuel.
The Potential for the vegetation of Sauk County to collect solar energy for Bio Fuel is equivalent to 250,000,000 gallons of diesel fuel - every year. That is more volume than the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Even if we used just 1% - that’s millions of gallons.
Burning biofuel is renewable, carbon neutral, easy to store, use on demand, safe, clean, local, creates jobs, and can be 100% independent of the big energy corporations.
The perfect use is a business that needs both heat and electricity. Here is one idea.
Our forests and city trees are underutilized and wood waste often is expensive to dispose of.
Why Not???