Sarah Sobanski 2024-10-18 06:12:44
Back to basics with the health of Canada’s forests and climate-friendly action
Can Canada’s forest sector — from its woodlot owners to pellet producers, and the consumers in between — get back to being proud of what it does?
It’s a question hundreds of forest sector insiders considered as they gathered for the Wood Pellet Association of Canada’s much-loved annual conference mid-September in Victoria, B.C.
Industry drivers, such as Drax’s Vaughan Basset, equipment leaders, such as David Dubios of Fink Machine Inc., and top market analysts, such as Future- Metrics’s Bill Strauss, and Argus Media’s Robbie Webster Junior and Hannah Adler, came together to discuss what’s next for the industry.
“All forest fiber is important, and we shouldn’t waste it,” said WPAC head Gordon Murray as the conference kicked off.
While the conference’s major goal set to outline the future role of biomass in electrification, attendees also seemed keen to come together and reaffirm their commitment to the health of Canada’s forests and climate-friendly action.
“When I first started in the forest sector it was a source of pride. I bragged about being in forestry,” said Joe Nemeth, GM for the B.C. Pulp and Paper Coalition, speaking to public opinion the sector is bad for Canada’s forests.
Nemeth shared details of his recent twoweek trip to Finland, spent learning how the country handles and thinks about its forests.
He said Finland is focused on “offence, not defense.”
The country’s foresters actively manage their forests before harvest by removing brush, to reduce wildfire risk, and thinning weak and dead trees, to promote best growth, create regular biomass supply, and ensure sustainable economic value.
“They truly actively manage their forests and it’s very successful,” said Nemeth, adding the country claims 100%-forest use, including wood chips and bark heading to pulp and paper mills, and pellet plants, but also to biomass-fired energy systems “in every single town.”
Reestablishing pride, garnering public and government support, synergising policy locally and internationally, and fostering a better understanding the role active forest management, and by extension bioenergy, can play in mitigating the climate crisis were key takeaways from the conference.
Bill Strauss, president and founder of FutureMetrics, kicked off his presentation with a nod to the reason the biomass industry exists; rising global carbon emissions and climate change.
He said fossil fuels won’t last forever, and the need for electricity is increasing. The world needs to transition to decarbonized electricity now, but energy storage capacity to support variable wind and solar energy is decades away.
That’s where sustainably sourced biomass comes in to support baseload and load-following power generation by replacing coal power plants.
Janet Annesley, chief sustainability officer with energy transition company Kiwetinohk Energy Corporation, and fellow for the Public Policy Forum, said here at home Canada has to grow its clean electricity grid by two to three times.
“We have a lot of the technical solutions… In the immediate time we can reduce emissions because there’s a lot of safe bets, and wood pellets are one of them,” said Annesley.
David Dubois, business development manager for Fink Machine Inc., spoke to the applications of biomass boilers in remote communities, not just for the larger grid.
Read Canadian Biomass’s full report on WPAC 2024, and FutureMetrics’s white paper on declining fossil fuel capacity, at www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca.
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