Area business energized by green initiatives, biomass

By Amanda Fries, Observer-Dispatch:

Upstate New York is leading the way in the biomass industry, and local businesses are tapping in.

Old Forge Properties — including Enchanted Forest/Water Safari and Water’s Edge Inn and Conference Center — recently announced a biomass heating project and anticipates receiving a grant to cover 75 percent of the $2.2 million endeavor, President and CEO Tim Noonan said.

And earlier this month Griffiss Utility Services Corp. broke ground on an $18 million biofuel project to supply heat and electricity for tenants of Rome’s Griffiss Business and Technology Park.

“We’ve seen a lot of increasing activity within the last three to five years (in biomass energy conversion),” said Tom Richard, director of the Biomass Energy Center at Penn State University. “Part of that has been the increase in cost of coal and oil and wider recognition of doing something serious about carbon footprint… Read more