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Nov 30, 2011

Largest single-story building in the United States switches to woody biomass heating | Forest Business Network

November 27, 2011
FOREST BUSINESS NETWORK


General Motors’ Chevrolet division has embarked on a 5-year effort to invest 40 million dollars in American projects that aim to reduce up to 8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. From post-wildfire reforestation, to wind farms, to pipeline heat recovery, and more, the corporation has some interesting CO2 reduction projects underway.

One that specifically caught our eye is an effort to help the United State’s largest single-story building, the Metrolina Greenhouse in Huntersville, North Carolina, replace its use of fossil fuel energy with that of woody biomass. The immense building—over 120 football fields—houses and turns over 70 million plants a year. An operation of this size requires a lot energy, to say the least. Last year, Metrolina switched from extensive fossil fuel use to generating virtually all of its heat from wood chips. The company feels its smoke-free biomass heating helps them be a much better corporate neighbor to surrounding communities than when they used old fossil fuel boilers in the past.

Jeff Woolsey, the Systems and Boiler Engineer for the greenhouse states:

When our biomass boilers are running and burning this wood, you cannot see any smoke. You can’t even tell they are running.

Watch this excellent video to see Metrolina and its biomass boilers in action:

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