Environmental Stewardship: Case Studies

The Northern Wood Power Project

The Northern Wood Power Project (NWPP) is one of the largest renewable energy projects in the U.S., and the only one replacing fossil fuel generation with an equivalent amount of cleaner, renewable electric power.  

Operated by our Public Service of New Hampshire subsidiary at Schiller Station in Portsmouth, N.H., the wood-fired boiler is a state-of-the-art circulating fluidized bed unit that replaces a 50 megawatt coal-fired boiler.  

The new boiler burns wood chips and other clean, low-grade wood materials for fuel, eliminating the need to burn more than 130,000 tons of coal annually. The new boiler produces about 70 percent less emissions of nitrogen oxide than its coal-burning predecessor. It also reduces mercury emissions by about 90 percent and it virtually eliminates sulfur dioxide emissions.  

Whole-tree wood chips and other biomass materials are considered "carbon neutral," meaning that no additional net carbon is released into the atmosphere from burning wood. This allows PSNH to achieve its goals of meeting the requirements of the New Hampshire Clean Power Act while helping the state of New Hampshire meet federal Clean Air Standards.  

For more information, please visit PSNH’s Northern Wood Project website.