Contact: NOVEC Public Relations, 1-888-335-0500, customerservice@novec.com
The Co-op's biomass plant is generating clean energy from recycled greens
MANASSAS, Va. –Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative will accept evergreen Christmas trees, wreaths, and garland at its technical center at 5399 Wellington Branch Road, Gainesville, VA 20155, near I-66 from Dec. 26 to Jan. 12. Customers may leave greenery in the front parking lot in the area designated by orange safety cones. Greens must be free of all decorations, metal ornament hooks, and light strings.
"Most people agree that it's more fun to put up and decorate a Christmas tree than to take one down," says Junior Martin, of NOVEC's right-of-way department. "But cut trees and greens need to go before they become so dry that they become a fire hazard."
NOVEC tree crews will chop the greens into wood chips. They will deliver the wood-chip mulch to interested Co-op members at no charge when right-of-way crews are working in nearby neighborhoods. Members interested in free wood-chip mulch should complete the request form at www.novec.com under Customer Services, then Products and Other Services. For more information about obtaining mulch or recycling holiday greens, contact NOVEC's right-of-way department at 703-335-0500 or 1-888-335-0500, extension 1633 or 1661, or via e-mail: novecrightofway@novec.com.
Christmas trees will illuminate NOVEC homes long after the holidays
NOVEC Energy Production has started using chipped greens and other wood waste collected at the South Boston Recycling Center as fuel for the Cooperative's renewable-energy biomass plant in Halifax County, Va. The recycled greens are helping to generate clean energy for NOVEC customers.
Previously, the recycling center was burning wood waste in the open. Fred Mistal, a NOVEC Energy Production consultant, came up with the idea of NOVEC partnering with the town to make good use of the piles of brush and wood collected daily by the South Boston Department of Public Utilities.
"I thought burning it in the open was not the most environmentally sound way to dispose of it," Mistal said.
The center brought in an enormous chipper on Dec. 1 to transform a 90-day stockpile of wood waste into chips small enough to be used as fuel at NOVEC's plant. Approximately 10 tractor-trailer loads of chips were delivered to the biomass plant where the chips will be used to generate electricity.Because of the partnership between South Boston's recycling center and the Co-op, Christmas trees will still be illuminating NOVEC homes long after the holidays.
