Combined Heat & Power (CHP) Plant--potential site

Category: Business

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) for District Heating/Cooling of Spearfish, South Dakota

A combined heat and power, or cogeneration plant for district heating/cooling (Reference 1) located on or next to the Spearfish Forest Products sawmill site could economically distribute hot water (typically at ~200 deg F) via insulated underground pipes to nearby large users of heat. For example, one pipeline path following a more or less straight line could serve (ordered by increasing distance) the drying operations of the sawmill, Black Hills State University (BHSU), which is adjacent to the sawmill, West Elementary School, the Middle School and tied for farthest at about 1 mile, the High School, the Hospital and Safeway Grocery. Another pipeline path following a somewhat less direct route for about 1.3 miles along Jackson Blvd, the main artery connecting the university with downtown, could serve the sawmill, BHSU and the downtown area.

Burning the very low cost waste wood both supports a local industry and keeps money otherwise paid to far-away natural gas suppliers within the Black Hills. The Black Hills can sustainably supply a vast amount of wood for this purpose and that, in contrast to natural gas, is carbon neutral. To obtain better economy of scale, it is very helpful to include more buildings than just those of BHSU.