PACIFIC BIOENERGY Established in 2004 in Vancouver, Pacif-ic Bioenergy has been a driving force for the Prince George bioeconomy. The com-pany’s flagship pellet plant, located just south of the city, was established in 2007. Just a few years later, in February of 2010, Pacific Bioenergy announced a $24 million expansion. The expansion would help the company meet the demands of a new supply contract: 10 years at 250,000 tonnes per year to GDF Suez. The expan-sion, and the new contract, helped Pacif-ic Bioenergy grow its annual production capacity to 400,000 tonnes, the second largest pellet plant capacity in Canada. Pacific Bioenergy has worked diligent-ly to secure a long-term fibre supply, one of the biggest issues facing the wood pel-let industry in B.C. The company current-ly holds a forest license in the Quesnel timber supply area (TSA) for 700,000m 3 for 15 years. The contract covers an area of over one million hectares in the heart of mountain pine beetle infected wood from the City of Quesnel to the bound-ary of Tweedsmuir Park. Coupled with medium-to long-term contracts already in place with regional logging contractors and sawmills, Pacific Bioenergy has as stable a biomass supply as can be found in B.C. ESTABLISHING BIOMASS COGENERATION in Bear Lake and Isle Pierre, as the new cogeneration facility would require an annual volume of 225,000 tonnes of hog fuel. The greenhouse gas emission reduc-tion from eliminating the beehive burners vs. using the hog fuel in the cogen facil-ity was the equivalent annual volume of natural gas used in approximately 5,500 homes. For B.C. Hydro, it meant that much of the power demand needed for Canfor’s two mills (at the time) would be covered by the new electricity generation. Canfor was producing 390GWh with the new plant, while it used 415GWh of electrici-ty. The 390GWh now freed up for use by B.C. Hydro was equal to the company’s projected increase in hydro use for the 15 years to follow. For the community, it meant stabilized hydro rates thanks to savings in the pur-chase price of power for B.C. Hydro. It also meant lower emissions in the region. The Canfor project also opened the door for the expansion of biomass for heat and power generation in the community, as evidenced by the developments since 2007 on the campus of the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). In 2007, the university completed its green energy plan, looking for ways to reduce the campus’ carbon footprint and adopt green solutions for its expanding energy needs. In 2009, UNBC became the first uni-versity in Canada to own and operate its own biomass system. A pellet boiler, with a peak capacity of 400kW, was installed to heat the Enhanced Forestry Lab green-house. The pellets for the boiler were do-nated to the campus in an agreement with Pacific Bioenergy. In 2011, the university introduced Phase II of the campus’ bioenergy system, the installation of a Nexterra biomass gas-ification system. The $16.7-million bio-energy plant project was introduced to help reduce the cost of natural gas heat used to power the core of the campus. The biomass supply is provided as part of a five-year supply agreement with Lake-land Mills sawmill in Prince George. The The sawmill industry, as well as pulp and paper industry, have long since been staples of Prince George’s industri-al community. Canadian Forest Products (Canfor), TimberWest and Sinclar Group Forest Products (Lakeland Mills) are all established both in Prince George and throughout the region. In November of 2003, Canfor an-nounced that they would be building an $81-million cogeneration facility at its Prince George pulp mill. The facility, in cooperation with B.C. Hydro, would create enough power for 39,000 homes and significantly reduce the company’s dependence on electricity and natural gas resources. The construction of the cogeneration plant provided benefits on several levels for Canfor, B.C. Hydro and the commu-nity. For Canfor, the move also helped to retire two of Canfor’s beehive burners, Canadian BIOMASS Detroit stoker biomass julyaug 14.indd 1 25 2014-07-02 1:23 PM
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