§8113 Community Wood Energy and Wood Innovation Program

Summary

Creates a competitive grant program run by the Forest Service called the Community Wood Energy and Wood Innovation Program. It will give money to help pay for installing community wood energy systems and for building innovative wood product facilities. Grants can pay up to 35% of the capital cost. In special cases, like a school or hospital in a low-income community, grants can pay up to 50%. Grant recipients must provide the rest from non-Federal funds. A normal project grant may not be more than $1,000,000, and special-case grants may not exceed $1,500,000. Community wood energy system — a heat-focused system (or heat plus electricity) that serves public or private buildings and uses clean woody biomass without causing forest loss. Innovative wood product facility — a plant that makes things like large-panel or mass timber, nanotech wood products, or other new products using low-value wood. Mass timber — includes cross-laminated, nail-laminated, glue-laminated timber, laminated strand lumber, and laminated veneer lumber. The program picks winners based on energy efficiency, cost, use of top commercial technology, strict emissions controls, how much it replaces fossil fuels, improved heating efficiency, and project readiness. Priority goes to projects that use the best emission controls and that help local wood markets, areas without natural gas, struggling mill communities, or forest restoration. Systems funded cannot exceed 5 megawatts capacity. No more than 25% of annual grant money may go to innovative product facilities unless there are too few community system applications. Congress authorized $25,000,000 per year for fiscal years 2019–2023.