New boiler at Splash Palace to run on sustainable wood chips

The installation of an innovative boiler that runs on wood chips is the beginning of a new sustainable era for the Invercargill City Council, Infrastructure Chairperson Carolyn Dean said today.

“This is a huge change in Council's thinking.  We have opted to stop heating our swimming pool on lignite, which is a dirty burning fuel, in favour of a much cleaner, locally made, renewable energy source.

“Not only will the new boiler put considerably less pollutants into the air, the by-product pot ash can be used on the garden, whereas the ash from lignite is quite toxic and has to be sent to the landfill,” Cr Dean said.  "Wood chips are a win-win for people's health and the environment.”

Asset Manager Paul Horner said Council began researching other heating sources four years ago because it was starting to spend a lot on maintenance of the old boilers.

“We were looking at better heating options that were more efficient but not cost prohibitive.

“Coal is the cheapest fuel source, but wood chips are being used more and more as we see the increasing benefits of using a renewable resource,” Mr Horner said.

Council put the job out for tender and chose a company called Living Energy from Auckland, who have sourced and installed an Austrian-made Binder Boiler.

A diesel boiler has also been installed alongside the Binder Boiler, which will only be used as a backup when the wood chip boiler is closed for maintenance.

Mr Horner said the total cost of the upgrade was estimated to be about $650,000.

The wood chips have a 30% moisture content and are sourced locally from Niagara Wood Fuels, a product the company was already exporting all around the world, Mr Horner said.

Mr Horner said while the wood chips were 15% costlier than the lignite, Council would make savings in other areas to off-set the increased cost, such as supervision, maintenance and because wood chips did not have an Emissions Trading Scheme cost (ETS).

Community Services Chairperson Cr Lindsay Abbot said Invercargill was one of only a few swimming pools in New Zealand to use renewable fuel to heat swimming pools.

“We understand Wanaka and Gisborne run their pools on wood chips but most use other fuels that are high polluters,” Cr Abbot said.

Pools Manager Peter Thompson said another advantage of upgrading to the new boilers was that it would solve health and safety issues around the ash.

Mr Thompson said the new system had an automatic conveyor that took the ash away.

“Our guys had to carry eight buckets of “scolding hot” ashes upstairs every day.

“We will produce only 5% of the ash that we used to produce from burning lignite.

“We are going from having two skips sent to the landfill every week to ½ a wheelie bin which can be composted in our gardens.

“Given the considerable efficiencies in the new system we’ve also been able to raise the temperature of our leisure pool by one degree which has been met with great enthusiasm from our pool users”.

“It’s going to be a nice feeling to know you are swimming in a pool that’s heated by wood chips, it’s cleaner, and is a real world example of sustainability lessons we’re teaching our kids in school,” Mr Thompson said.