(8/21) Gov. Martin O’Malley seems
excited by Thurmont’s investigation of using
woody waste to generate electricity. He
mentioned the project in his speech before the
Maryland Association of Counties recently.
Thurmont Mayor Martin Burns also noted that
O’Malley’s staff was quick to finance a
pre-feasibility study on the plant.
Burns said the pre-feasibility study was
“not the study the Town of Thurmont wanted
completed, but [Energy Consultant Bill
Rodenberg] was required to do a feasibility
study before he could find out whether it was
feasible to do a biomass plant in Thurmont.”
The $70,000 pre-feasibility study was
funded fully by two grants, one from the
Maryland Department of Energy and the other
from the Maryland Department of Business and
Economic Development. The study showed it was
feasible in the general sense, but left many
questions unanswered.
The Thurmont commissioners and many
residents want to see those questions answered
before the project moves forward. Some town
residents who have experience in energy
matters and power plants have looked over the
study and created lists of questions. To get
those questions answered would require
conducting a full feasibility study, which
Rodenberg estimated could cost the town
$250,000.
Commissioner Glenn Muth echoed the
sentiments of some of the other commissioners
when he said that while he was interested in
the project he didn’t favor going further
without additional grant funding for the
study.
Rodenberg said that would become more
difficult as agencies with grants begin to
notice that the town “doesn’t have any skin in
the game yet.” Many grants available would
require some sort of matching funds from the
town.
The commissioners plan to move forward by
scheduling two meetings. One meeting will be
technical in nature as Rodenberg meets with
local energy experts and town representatives
to talk through some of the technical aspects
of the project and put together a list of
questions that need to be answered. The second
meeting will be a teleconference with other
municipal officials who either have a biomass
plant or something similar. The main question
to be asked in this meeting will be “Would you
do it again?”
