Even if there isn’t much biomass production in private forests at the mo-ment, Quebec’s federation of private forest landowners supports Quebec’s Biomass Vision. “The forest landowners are always partners in the development and utilization of wood products. The biomass cluster has started to take off and can become an interesting revenue source for private forest landowners,” says Marc-André Rhéaume, the federa-tion’s forest engineer. Quebec’s Biomass Vision rallies sever-al important actors from the industrial, forestry and environmental sectors. Sup-port from Nature Quebec adds credibility to the environmental value of the net-work. “We want to work at the forefront to ensure heat production from woody biomass becomes the leading model,” explains Amelie St-Laurent Samuel, the head of the biomass project. “We have managed to rally several organizations around our vision. This demonstrates the strong social accep-tance that has evolved around this initia-tive,” Eugene Gagne adds. ATTAINING CRITICAL MASS WE FACE EXPLOSIONS EVERY DAY SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO. Don’t ignore potential hazards in your facility. Get tested! DEPEND ON FIKE for expert testing services and our full range of explosion protection solutions. To request a free consultation with a Fike Explosion Protection progessional, email us at: [email protected] 1-800-363-8116 www.fike.ca While the cost of using biomass is very competitive compared to the cost of us-ing oil or propane, the initial investment required for installing biomass heaters is prohibitive to development. It’s for this reason that the government must send a clear message of support for the industry, says Eugene Gagne. “The government is a large institutional energy consumer. It needs to take a leading role in the devel-opment of the system to lend credibility and help it attain enough critical mass to take off,” he says. In some rural regions of Quebec, the volume is too small to adequately pre-pare the necessary fuel. “A large-scale project, like the conversion of the Amqui hospital required at least 1500 tonnes and allowed critical mass for the region to participate. Following its conversion, several small projects were added since the expertise had already been developed in the region,” explains Gagne. In order to obtain maximum perfor-mance and the economic and environ-mental advantages, the biomass must be adequately prepared as fuel for the boiler. Attaining enough demand enables the development of qualified expertise in the region. The province relaunched a biomass program based on the use of forestry residuals in 2013 that helps companies and individuals convert their systems and is an excellent tool to develop more opportunities for the industry. “The ac-tual context is very positive,” Eugene Gagne guesses. “In the last budget, the government announced a $20 million investment in turnkey projects.” These investments will be used for heating systems and to sell electricity to clients rather than simply biomass. “By con-trolling the whole chain of development, these successful projects will lend credi-bility to the industry,” he adds. However, the use of biomass for heat production wasn’t part of the climate change action plan for 2013 to 2020. With a budget of $2 million attached to this plan, it would provide an important source of funding for the development of the biomass industry in Quebec. • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 18 Canadian BIOMASS
Canadian Biomass September October 2014: Page 18
