BIOMASS

Severnbanks Primary School, in Naas Lane, Lydney is investigating replacing their old gas boiler with a wood chip fired heating system.
Norchard Drift site

The school, which houses 250 children, is currently heated by a 950,000 BTU (248 kW) gas boiler that is out of date and very inefficient. In fact the whole school is in need of energy efficiency improvements and the entire heating system has been singled out as due for replacement. Initially an energy audit will be carried out to identify ways in which the school can reduce its energy requirements and use all heat energy to maximum effect; once consumption has been minimised then options for a compact and efficient biomass heating system will be investigated.

An initial Heating Enquiry sent out through the British Biogen network attracted a lot of interest from biomass companies and several draft outlines have been submitted for the scheme.
Passive Solar Design
Hydro Power
Energy From Wood
Photovoltaics
Lydney Local Power Home Page
Typical Wood Chip Fired Boiler and Feed. (Source British Biogen)
The new biomass heating system would use fuel that is sourced from the nearby Lydney Park Estate. The Estate has a large area of woodland and even a small saw mill. At present most of the wood is either burnt on site or bagged and binned with a small amount being sold for around £10/tonne. The idea is to create a link between the Severnbanks heating system and the wood fuel produced by the Park Estate. This will ensure a reliable and local fuel source for the school and simultaneously provide a market for waste timber that is currently being burnt on the neighbouring Estate.