NWT Biomass Keeping Warm Up North With more than 230 pellet boilers in operation, Yellowknife has become Canada’s unexpected pellet capital. By Jack Danylchuk M ayor Gordon VanTi-ghem delights in the fact that tour-ists who visit Yellowknife, North America’s diamond capital, are also unintentionally visiting the pellet boiler capital of Canada Being 1,000 kilometres north of the nearest oil refinery, Yellowknife lives on the front line of volatile fossil fuel prices. A decade ago, a small factory owner thought wood pellets might be the answer to his dilemma of providing a constant flow of air to his shop without breaking the bank. Bruce Elliott experimented with wood pellets, concluded there was a business in it, and five years ago sold the territorial government on his vision. “It took a bit of convincing, but once we showed them it worked, their response has been good,” said Elliott. The first project was the North Slave Correctional Facility in Yellowknife, where Elliott installed the boilers and, under a 10-year contract, sells the heat to the gov-ernment below the current price of fuel oil. “It has cost them nothing, and they get green energy.” Prior to the summer of 2008, oil prices were more than $1.20 per litre, resulting in payback periods as low as three to five years for converting to wood pellets. The government moved quickly to take advantage of the savings, convert-ing many of the buildings in the capital, including the Legislative Assembly. With the current high cost of fuel oil in Yel-lowknife, biomass-heating projects are reducing the cost of heating 40 to 50%. According to government estimates, by the end of 2011, Yellowknife’s oil con-sumption will be reduced by more than two million litres annually. But the poten-tial for savings is even greater, says a re-port by the Arctic Energy Alliance: “If ev-MARCH/APRIL 2012 20 Canadian BIOMASS
Canadian Biomass March/April 2012: Page 20
