Honeywell Building Solutions, a leading global supplier of control technologies for buildings, recently announced a 3.9 million dollar contract with the City of Battle Creek (Michigan), for an energy conservation program that will use a combination of renewable energy technology and infrastructure upgrades to reduce the city’s energy costs, improve its buildings and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The performance contract, which is expected to save the city more than $190,000 in annual energy and operational costs, includes the installation of a wood chip-heated boiler which uses a process of biomass gasification that creates a synthetic gas that burns similar to natural gas and is carbon-neutral.

According to the company’s press release, along with the biomass boiler, Honeywell will install two natural gas boilers to provide a second stage of heating during the coldest winter months. Additional building infrastructure improvements will include heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) upgrades, water conservation improvements, lighting retrofits, and humidity controls to improve air quality.