Even though it's just June, there's nothing like the smell of a burning fireplace in early fall to evoke fond memories of winter walks and holiday parties. If you've ever been to a bonfire or huddled around a campfire to stay warm, you know that burning wood is an excellent source of heat and energy. What you may not know, however, is that burning wood and plants may also one day power your data center or client PC.

If the energy bill passes, utilities will be under a mandate to generate 20% of their electricity using renewable energy by 2020. Solar and wind are excellent candidates, but as I've blogged before, solar and wind face a whole host of problems in generating electricity for the heavily-populated Northeast, such as transmission and storage. As this Wall Street Journal article today explains, biomass may be an alternative. Current forecasts call for biomass to generate 4.5% of the U.S. electricity supply by 2030, more than wind or solar.

Doesn't burning wood and plants create carbon? It obviously does, but apparently, it's all right! From the article:

While greenhouse gas is released when biomass is burned, the process is considered nearly carbon neutral because the plants only emit the carbon they absorbed while they were growing. The plants would release the same amount of greenhouse gas if they died naturally and decomposed. The burning of coal, by contrast, releases carbon that otherwise never would have been sent into the atmosphere.

So the next time you feel tempted to burn firewood, by all means do so realizing that it is in fact, a carbon neutral action!