Canadian Biomass • Fall 2020 • Event coverage

2020 WPAC Conference and AGM highlights wood pellets as a solution to climate change

Vaughan Bassett opened this year’s Wood Pellet Association of Canada (WAPC) Conference and AGM with a reminder of how extraordinary and challenging 2020 has been.

“We had to really lift our game this year to deal with COVID-19 restrictions and practices, rail disruptions, fires blazing out of control to our south, more hurricanes than we actually had alphabet to name, export terminal challenges – and it’s only September,” said Bassett, president of WPAC and a senior vice-president at Pinnacle Renewable Energy.

The virtual conference ran from Sept. 22 to Sept. 24, attracting nearly 500 professionals from around the world.

“But if I know anything, it’s that we are a resilient bunch,” Bassett said. “We have weathered significant challenges in the past and have done so successfully.”

THE EXPENSE OF CLIMATE CHANGE Climate change was a major focus of this year’s event, with WPAC embracing its new tagline of “Responsible, Renewable Clean Energy.”

William Strauss, president and founder of FutureMetrics, said the problem of carbon dioxide emissions is simply too expensive to ignore.

“We’re having increasing variability and severity in weather-related disasters,” he said. “Unpredictability with increasing costs is anathema to capitalism. Investors want to have certainty and predictability and not increasing costs. This is going to motivate change even amongst those that may not think it’s necessary right now.”

Strauss cast a spotlight on coal-fired power plants, pointing out there are still 5,026 plants operating globally with capacities of 100 megawatts (MW) or more.

He expects to see increased demand for co-firing, using wood pellets to replace some coal, or perhaps even full conversions away from coal to pellets. Wood pellets have 85 per cent less carbon footprint than coal when creating energy, taking into account the supply chain, he said.

Jason Fisher, vice-president of strategic partnerships and corporate responsibility at Pinnacle Renewable Energy, continued the green message in his presentation. For him, it’s a simple fact of the industry: “We turn local waste into a global solution,” he said.

Before the wood pellet industry took off, piles of sawdust and shavings accumulated at sawmills were often burned in beehive burners or in piles.

“In 2003, a serious effort was made to get rid of those burners in British Columbia,” he said, adding that it wasn’t just about getting rid of waste on the ground but also getting the waste out of the air.

But it’s important to recognize that wood pellets alone are not the solution, he said. Instead, they will work hand-in-hand in allowing the adoption of more solar and wind energy by providing a responsive and firm renewable energy source, he said.

Climate change is “already here and it’s not something we can put off addressing to a later date,” said Fisher.

Jamie Stephen, founder and managing director of Torchlight Bioresources, pointed out that Canada has a long way to go to hit its 2030 Paris Agreement commitments. About 230 million tons, to be specific.

“We’re not going to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions – so that means we do need negative emissions,” he said. “This means we’re actually removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to offset the places that we still have emissions.”

Stephen talked about bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology – which allows carbon dioxide to be stored underground – as a key way to achieve negative emissions.

Bassett concluded the conference by expressing optimism about the industry. There is a growing movement in some nations around ensuring pellets are produced sustainability, and Canada is well positioned to prove its forests and pellets are properly managed and harvested. This will level the playing field for Canadian producers, he said.