Sep 14 2010
Lockheed Martin and Whiting Turner have made a $15 million agreement with the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centre in Canandaigua, New York, to deliver an automated biomass steam production system that utilizes biological materials like wood and bark-chips retrieved from various logging activities for producing untainted energy and heat.
As per the contract, Lockheed Martin will develop, establish and assess the biomass system. Additionally, the company will provide training to the VA staff on the operation of the equipment. Whiting Turner will bestow onsite building management and will pair with VA for incorporating the steam generation equipment.
Steven Bolewski, VA Network Energy Manager has stated that their medical centre is dedicated to bringing down the energy overheads, producing onsite energy using reusable reserves and also in bringing down carbon emission. He added that the readily available biological materials which are used as energy supply will help the medical centre to evade expensive fluctuations in energy costs, thereby potentially bringing down their total carbon release.
The endowment for this project was done as per the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This automated steam generation system will be of the same design as that of in Owego with additional features for decreasing the cost and enhancing the efficiency.