The Charter Street Heating Plant project is an exciting one. Instead of burning more than 100,000 tons each year of dirty coal ? which pollutes the air, contributes to climate change and sends money out of state ? the UW-Madison power plant is being converted to run on biomass including wood waste, corn stalks, switchgrass and other farm-grown fuels from Wisconsin. Yet the project?s huge price tag can?t be ignored or dismissed. It?s more than $250 million to provide enough power to heat and cool some 300 local buildings.
Office of Strategic Communication