OXFORD — School officials say a recent trip to a town outside of Pittsburgh, Pa., to see a biomass wood burner in operation reinforced their own plans for a similar system at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

“It really helped us to see it in operation,” said Superintendent Mark Eastman of the wood chip system he, Building and Grounds Director David Marshall and Business Manager Cathy Fanjoy saw at the Church Community International complex. The Christian community heats about nine buildings, including apartments and a school building with one central heating system using wood chips.

Officials here are waiting for word on several grants that will help fund construction of the $1.8 million biomass boiler at the high school in Paris. It will include a wood chip storage unit inside an existing building at the high school and an extension of the boiler room to accommodate the wood boiler.

The school officials spent about a day in Pennsylvania touring the facility. The complex grinds its own chips, something that Oxford Hills School District will not be doing, Eastman said. The superintendent also noted the Austrian-made boiler is self-cleaning, has its own ignition system and from what he saw in Pennsylvania, it appears to emit no smoke from the stack. “It’s very impressive,” he said.

Officials have submitted an application for up to $1 million grant — part of a $12 million pool of money that has recently become available from a partnership of state agencies including the Bureau of General Services, Efficiency Maine and the Public Utilities Commission for such projects

The grant is one of two that school officials are seeking to construct the 950 KW biomass wood chip boiler. A second grant for $750,000 from the Department of Conservation is also being submitted.

Officials say that the project would reduce the consumption of fossil fuel by 88,593 gallons or 90 percent of current usage. It would also reduce production of greenhouse gases by 1,232,436 pounds per year including 1,214,264 pounds of carbon dioxide.

“If we hit any one of these options, the project will be a go, Eastman told the Board of Directors at its meeting this week. The first grant is expected to be awarded as early as Jan. 15.

Eastman said the school would operate on a wood chip, not wood pellet, system because it is the least expensive option for a wood boiler.

The plan is to burn about 1,200 tons of wood chips a year or five tons a day during the peak heating season. The cost is estimated at about $40 to $50 a ton or about 17 percent of the cost of burning No. 2 heating oil, which is currently used.

The project parameters changed over the last year when school officials had to scrap a larger project because of a $150 million curtailment of state funds and the reduction of fuel oil prices from about $3.99 a gallon to $1.99 a gallon. “We couldn’t generate that positive cash flow,” he said of the previous project with the present reduced heating oil costs.

The proposed conversion project from oil to wood chips at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School was planned to address escalating fuel costs and to make the district more energy independent by reducing dependence on foreign oil sources. Even with the current drop in the cost of oil, officials say the cost savings could save school district jobs in the future.

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The drawing shows the proposed layout of the wood chip boiler and storage at the high school.

Dave Marshall, building and grounds director, is shown with his arms outstretched while commenting on a similar wood-chip boiler heating system school officials were visiting in Pittsburgh, Pa.