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alternative has not had much of a behavior-changing impact on consumers, a fact that doesn’t surprise Birchem. “I think it’s just a matter of educating the public,” she says. “A lot of people don’t know about wood pellets.” Americans don’t seem to be aware of the green-friendly fuel’s success in Europe. The informational disconnect in the United States between the general public, and the option of wood pellets as a source of heat didn’t always exist. “[Wood pellets] were actually invented in the late 1970s in the United States,” says Christian Rakos, chief executive officer of proPellets Austria. “[Pellets] led a very quiet life in small niches for two decades before a furious market development started in Europe.” The growing use of pellets as a heating source in Europe demonstrates an awakening in this country that can’t be ignored, Rakos says. “Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Germany and Italy have been growing on the average of 30 percent to 50 percent per year during the past decade,” he says. Gerald Brown, marketing director of
PHOTO: VALLEY FOREST WOOD PRODUCTS LLC
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oann “Tink” Birchem says she “can see the forest for the trees.” In time, everyone else will see it too, she says. Birchem and her husband Jerry, own Valley Forest Wood Products LLC in Marcell, Minn., and Birchem Logging Inc. in Mt. Iron, Minn. Somewhere in northeast Minnesota, where thousands of trees dot the landscape, Tink Birchem saw the forest that she believes holds the future of heating. That future is in the form of a small wood pellet that burns hot and clean inside special furnaces. Eventually, everyone is going to need them and the reason can be explained in one word—cost, Birchem says. As people struggle with rising energy costs, they will take notice of the relief wood-pellet furnaces offer the pocketbook. There is a noticeable difference between the price of wood pellets versus fuel oil, and there’s no getting around the outcome. “Wood pellets cost half of what fuel oil is right now,” Birchem says. Despite the large price gap, the heating
Call us at 515-292-1200 www.frontlinebioenergy.com 32 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 4|2008
Valley Forest Wood Products in Marcell is pictured here from the south.