Jul 18 2007
Canadians don’t like wasting leftovers – especially when it comes to forests. “Canada has over 16 million tonnes of old bark sitting in piles, the bioenergy equivalent of Alberta’s tar sands, and each year over 11 million tonnes of leftover harvest waste is either burned or left to rot in the bush,” said Douglas Bradley, President of the Canadian Bioenergy Association (CANBIO), speaking at an Ottawa workshop last week.
The problem? Harvesting leftover wood is still expensive and is not integrated into Canada’s harvesting practices like it is in Scandinavia where energy from wood is a boom industry. “More than ever we need a bioenergy strategy to maximize energy creation from a mix of biomass sources,” said Bradley.
That’s one of the reasons why CANBIO is organizing “Realizing the Bioenergy Opportunity,” a three-day international conference to be held in Toronto from 12-14 September 2007. The event is intended to boost Canada’s bioenergy industry by bringing together European experts and investors, Canadian municipalities and the forestry sector to network and share business opportunities.
“There’s never been a better time for European bioenergy investors and companies to partner with Canada,” said Bradley. “There is huge potential to develop onsite heat and power, or to develop ‘transportable’ woody biomass products such as condensed wood pellets or higher end fuels like bio-oil from fast pyrolysis, either for domestic use or for sale into the lucrative European market.”
Canada’s Dynamotive is a global leader in fast pyrolysis technology and the Conference will offer delegates a rare chance to see the new 200 tonne per day biooil plant being commissioned in Guelph, Ontario – the largest bio-oil plant in the world.
The event will feature speakers from the EU, the Canadian bioenergy industry, the forest sector and governments. Delegates will learn more about how to capitalize on European incentive systems and domestic initiatives like the Standard Offer Program (SOP) introduced in Ontario last November. Similar to feed-in tariffs in many EU Member States, the SOP offers all renewable energy generators a base rate of 11 cents (CDN) per kWh for electricity delivered, and projects delivering electricity during on-peak hours receive an extra 3.52 cents.
In the eight months since the SOP was launched contracts for wind energy have reached nearly 300 MW, solar has jumped from zero to almost 60 MW and bioenergy to almost 28 MW. “The SOP has great potential to support bioenergy growth in Ontario. European expertise and technologies can help proponents and projects get off the ground faster and that’s what the Toronto conference is all about,” said Melissa Felder, an environmental consultant and CANBIO Director.