Energy Plans Wanted
From the Stuart/Nechako Advertiser (Black
Press)
By Arthur Williams
March 9, 2007
Victoria, BC. - B.C.
Hydro will soon be seeking proposals for
wood waste and beetle wood burning electricity plants as part
of a plan to make the province electrically self-sufficient by 2016.
Minister of Energy, Mines and
Petroleum Resources Richard Neufeld
announced the decision as part of the 2007 B.C. Energy Plan, Thursday
morning.
"We expect it will be a lot more expensive than run-of-the-river [hydroelectric] energy," Neufeld said.
"B.C. Hydro will work with forestry companies to figure out how they can do that [economically.] If it is really expensive, we'll find out. But we have to consider what will happen if we just leave it."
Wood energy is greenhouse gas neutral because, if left to rot naturally, it releases the same amount of carbon dioxide as if it burned. "There is a lot of opportunity to see that energy to our neighbours down south where they generate power through coal," Neufeld added.
The province will work with two companies currently proposing to build coal-fired electric plants to convert to burning biomass or find some other way to offset the greenhouse gas emissions.
B.C. Hydro will make a standing offer to purchase power from green energy projects and efficient cogeneration plants under 10 megawatts.
"Going through the whole approval process ... is pretty hard for small producers," Neufeld said.
B.C. Hydro will pay a base rate based on their most recent call for proposals - currently $71 per megawatt hour, he added.
There are also plans to use pine beetle wood to produce biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. By 2010, the province will require gasoline and diesel to include five per cent biofuel.
"That provides plenty of opportunities throughout the province to meet that," Neufeld said.
A current challenge facing local biofuel producers is the $0.31 per litre subsidy given to U.S. producers.
"We are asking the federal government to match that subsidy," he said. "[But] we can compete."
A more detailed bioenergy strategy is expected to be released in the coming months.
John Swaan, executive director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada, said the energy strategy creates a framework for realist bioenergy development.
Swaan is the founder of Pacific BioEnergy Corp - formerly PFI Pellet Flame - a Prince George-based wood pellet producer.
Swaan said small bioenergy cogeneration plants which produce heat and electricity are a successful model. The heat is used to provide local district heating or used for industrial processes like kiln drying lumber.
"That is the realistic way to do it. It creates a lot of synergies," Swaan said. "We don't have to reinvent the wheel, the technology does exist. I've toured through two facilities in Austria just like it." Large biomass-burning electric plants don't capture enough value from the wood to be economic," Swaan said.
The move to create an open call for 10 megawatt and smaller plants is exactly what is needed to jump start in the bioenergy industry in B.C.
"That's exactly the model they needed to be using. I'm very pleased they're going down that road," he said. "In the past, B.C. Hydro hasn't typically been interested in smaller projects. It enables us to use some of the [beetle] compromised that doesn't have merchandisable value, but has megawatt value."
For more Omineca Express/Caledonia Courier stories, visit their website at: http://www.ominecaexpress.com.
