Energy Xchange turns trash into fuel — and art

When Ian Kessler-Gowell began counting up the costs to open his own glass blowing studio, the show stopper wasn’t the industrial furnace, the polishing wheel, or diamond-bladed band-saw. Instead it was the energy — $3,000 a month in propane — to constantly heat glass to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Along with the cost was a nagging case of eco-guilt.

“Glass blowing is a ridiculous energy consumer,” Gowell said. “I always felt guilty about pumping all that propane.”

But then he heard about Energy Xchange, an artist campus in the mountains of North Carolina near Burnsville that sits on an old landfill. The studios harness methane gas given off by decomposing trash to power glass furnaces and pottery kilns. 

“There is really nothing else like it,” said Lindsay Rogers, a potter-in-residence at the Energy Xchange. “As a personal philosophy in my life, I’ve always been interested in sustainability.”

Rogers makes her own pottery from local clays rather than mass-produced clay shipped long distances. Instead of an electric potter’s wheel, she prefers the old-fashioned foot-pedal. But firing the clay — an 18-hour bake at 2,350 degrees Fahrenheit — would typically negate Roger’s eco-efforts. Now, thanks to the methane-powered kilns at the Energy Xchange, the carbon footprint of Rogers’ pottery is almost zero.

“The question is what is going to happen to the arts when energy costs get so high [artists] can’t price their wares to cover their costs?” said Heather Dawes, executive director of the Energy Xchange. “The only way they can survive is to keep their overhead low, and when you have energy spiking, they are having a very hard time doing that.”

Energy Xchange artists have capitalized on the green image of their work. At a recent art show, Gowell got a sanctioned “green” exhibitor tag, which seemed to lure some browsers to his table.

“It’s cool to brand yourself as doing something that’s sustainable,” Gowell said.

It appeals to craft collectors but also provides a teaching moment for the artists as they share their experiences with a methane-powered art studio.

“I want people to be more conscious about the energy they use,” Rogers said.

Sparking a vision

The advent of Energy Xchange in a remote, back holler of Western North Carolina was at the forefront of a national movement to harness the green power of landfill methane for crafters and greenhouses.

“We showed it could work,” said Heather Dawes, the executive director of Energy Xchange. Backed by partners like HandMade in America and the Environmental Protection Agency, Energy Xchange epitomized the cottage industry emerging around alternative fuels, Dawes said.

“I think there is a lot that hasn’t been explored in terms of alternative energy sources, and Energy Xchange is trying to do that on a small, local level,” Dawes said. Representatives from rural villages in Mexico and Africa, where energy is hard to come by, have looked at the Yancey County landfill as a model.

Mountain communities, with their inborn ingenuity and reverence for the environment, have been particularly quick to emulate the idea. In Dillsboro, N.C., the Jackson County Green Energy Park became the only site in the country to run the high-heat, high-energy forges for blacksmiths off of methane. In Asheville, reclaimed methane will soon power the kilns, forges, and torches of students attending the University of North Carolina at Asheville’s new Craft Campus built alongside an old county landfill.

A few cities with more substantial landfills are converting their methane straight to electricity. In Chattanooga, Tenn., power is sold over the grid to electric companies, and in Johnson City, Tenn., methane is piped four miles to light and heat buildings on the campus of East Tennessee State University and a VA Hospital.

Heating greenhouses is another use for landfill methane. Both Energy Xchange and the Green Energy Park channel methane to large boilers, which in turn heat water that courses through coils below the greenhouse floor. While ornamental nursery plants are a burgeoning cash crop in the mountains, growers typically have to buy their seedlings.

“They can’t get into the propagation end of it because they can’t afford to heat greenhouses in the mountains in the winter,” Dawes said. 

The methane-heated greenhouses of Energy Xchange provide that missing link, propagating tiny rhododendrons, flame azaleas, and other native mountain flora until they’re big enough for growers to set out in their fields.

Energy Xchange is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday. It’s located about 50 minutes north of Asheville, between Spruce Pine and Burnsville. For more information call 828-675-5541 or visit www.energyxchange.org.

The Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro, N.C., is also open to the public with tours Wednesdays and Fridays from 2 to 4 p.m. or by appointment. For more information call 828-631-0271 or visit www.jcgep.org.