District Energy St. Paul and Science Museum of Minnesota: Collaborating on Energy Tree, a biomass education project

摘要

Energy Tree is a unique collaboration between a heating and cooling utility, District Energy St. Paul, and its next-door neighbor, the Science Museum of Minnesota. This biomass educational initiative centers on St. Paul Cogeneration, a combined heat and power (CHP) plant that simultaneously produces heat and electricity using a biomass fuel, clean wood waste, collected from the Twin Cities metropolitan area. St. Paul Cogeneration is owned by Market Street Energy Company, a District Energy affiliate, and Cinergy Solutions. While the CHP plant was still in its development stages, District Energy and the Science Museum realized the project presented a remarkable opportunity to educate the museum's 1.25 million annual visitors and the general public about renewable energy, combined heat and power, natural resources and the environment. In May 2000, District Energy was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Forest Service to collaborate with the Science Museum and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on a comprehensive tree-waste-biomass energy education effort. Deliverables would include development of a master interpretive plan to guide exhibit development and implement a demonstration biomass interpretive planting.