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Double A Projects

Created Aug 26, 2015

Author By Double A Vineyards

Category Willow

East Lycoming School District – East Lycoming planted 50 acres of shrub willow in the spring of 2010 to provide a renewable source of heat in its new biomass boiler. Currently the school relies exclusively on heating oil. The school district is located in Central Pennsylvania near Williamsport. Students and faculty will be responsible for overseeing the management of the project. The project will also serve as an educational agricultural and energy experience for students at East Lycoming.

Colgate Planting Spring 2009 – Located in Hamilton, NY, Colgate recently planted a 7 acre demonstration field of willow in preparation for a potential 1200 acre planting to provide fuel for to serve the campus central biomass heat facility. This will be a major component to establishing a large scale sustainability program on the campus. Students and faculty will oversee the management of the project.

Lyonsdale Chip Yard – Catalyst Renewables operates the Lyonsdale 19 megawatt wood power plant in Lyons Falls NY. Catalyst began purchasing shrub willow cuttings to augment its wood supply in 2006 and to date has planted approximately 500 acres. It has plans to increase its production to several thousand acres over the next 5 years. Catalyst has also secured a DOE grant to construct a demonstration cellulosic ethanol plant at Lyonsdale utilizing renewable energy biomass including shrub willow.

Willow Planting in Skandia, Michigan – TRAXYS is a world wide developer that has immediate plans to convert coal plants in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to biomass energy plants. This spring a 30 acre demonstration field of shrub willow was planted in Marquette, Michigan. Considering planting an additional 1000 acres in the spring of 2011 with a long term goal of 25-50K acres. The results to date have been very encouraging.

Short Rotation Woody Crop Biomass Heating for Forest Seedling Greenhouses – The project is underway at PRT Red Rock, a northern British Columbia forest seedling nursery, located just south of Prince George, BC, and producing six to ten million forest seedlings annually. PRT expects to substitute a significant portion of existing natural gas heating with a high efficiency system fed with purpose grown fully sustainable short rotation woody biomass, grown on 25 acres of its under-utilized former bare root seedling fields. Pacific Regeneration Technologies Inc. (PRT) operates nine forest seedling nurseries in B.C., one in Alberta, one in Saskatchewan, two in Ontario and one in Oregon. They are sublicensed with Double A to plant nursery in Western Canada and Northwestern US.

Saskatchewan Research Council Willow Variety Trial – In 2009 the Saskatchewan Research Council established a Willow Variety trial to compare SUNY-ESF developed varieties to those common to Saskatchewan (Alpha, Charlie, Pseudo, Hotel, India, Juliet, and Chernozima) . Both plots are on the Conservation Learning Centre, which is an Agriculture research/learning farm 17 km south of Prince Albert.

Streambank Stabilization Project Protects Chautauqua Lake – The project, designed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, uses 8-foot-long living willow posts that were cut from area biomass plantations. The vertical stream bank was shaped to a gradual slope, and willow posts were set 4 feet into the ground, with 4 feet left above ground. Posts were set on a 2-foot by 2-foot grid along the shaped bank, starting just above the water level. Following project construction, the topsoil was re- placed and the site hydroseeded to a grass mix. Other cooperating partners in this project included the Chautauqua County Planning Department, the Chautauqua Lake Manage- ment Commission, excavating contractor Nate Terrill of Westfield and Double A Willow of Fredonia.

Vernon-Verona-Sherrill (VVS) High School Demonstration Plot – Vernon-Verona-Sherrill (VVS) High School is the host of a 2.5 acre demonstration trial of shrub willow bioenergy crops planted in cooperation with Cornell University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County and Double A Willow. Eight willow varieties were machine-planted in the spring of 2009 and will be cut back in the fall. The plants will resprout in the spring and grow until the first harvest, scheduled for the winter of 2012-13. The harvested wood chips will be used as a source of fuel in the production of maple syrup at VVS. The trial is intended to demonstrate the yield potential of the new shrub willow varieties and is part of a larger project designed to examine yield potential across a variety of sites. Since 2005, trials have been established at over 20 locations across North America, including 10 sites in New York, and 5 sites in Canada.

Celtic Energy Farm – This farm in Cape Vincent, NY, owned by Robert McDonough, will be the site of 200 acre shrub willow farm. Land preparation was accomplished in the fall of 2009 and shrub willow was established in 2010. Future plans include the establishment of an additional 500 acres.

Middlebury College – In 2006, Middlebury purchased shrub willow cuttings for a demonstration project to determine the feasibility of using shrub willow as a fuel source for a combined heat and power project for the college. It is expected that a decision on the project will be made during the next 1-2 years.

Double A Willow and Anthony Mining – Double A Willow and Anthony Mining, near Steubenville Ohio, are examining the possibility of working with large coal plants in Ohio on conversion or co-firing projects. There are 2000 acres of tillable reclaimed coal strip mine land available in Steubenville, Ohio for this demonstration project.

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