[This is an EXCERPT of an engaging photo essay - read the whole article here. -Ed.]

By David Roberts

"On a sunny Saturday afternoon in Salzburg, we took a field trip to a few examples of biomass in rural Austria. The country is over 40 percent forested, and over half of the forest is owned by small farmers with less than 40 hectares (just under 100 acres), so the government has put a priority on encouraging biomass use as a substitute for fossil fuels. It's a stable domestic industry, carefully managed with an eye toward local economic development and, as with just about everything I laid eyes on in Austria, proper aesthetics."

"The first place we stopped was a biomass district heating co-op run by 18 farmers. ... Obviously the farmers make more money during the cold winters, but the co-op provides a stable, predictable supplemental income throughout the year."

David Roberts also visits a biomass digester, the new, intensely efficient town hall that has its own biomass heat, and a residential biomass setup. He considers the economics involved (they are subsidized). And concludes: "these systems are simple, resilient, and predictable, locally owned and run, and of appropriate scale and character."

Photo credit: Steve Roe