The plant is situated on the southern tip of Cape Breton Island, providing easy access for receiving chips, bark and sawdust from barges. Point Tupper. “We also have woodland contractors that are out securing biomass for us, primarily from the seven counties surrounding our site.” That’s not an easy task when consider-ing the state of the forest industry in Nova Scotia. The combination of the recession and the weakening global demand for paper proved to be more than many con-tractors could survive. “The demise of the CCAA with the pa-per mill (NewPage) turned out to be very challenging for the woods contractors,” Campbell stated. “There were a lot that went out of business during that period. So even with the paper mill starting back up and us shortly thereafter coming on-line, many of the contractors chose not to return to the wood harvesting industry. So the biggest challenge has been a com-bination of contractor availability and the overall decline in the forestry sector in the province.” That has led Nova Scotia Power to look elsewhere for fibre, both for avail-ability and for the best price point. In 2014, NSP imported approximately 55,000 green metric tonnes of bark from sawmill operations in Quebec. The bark was shipped by barge, which was then offloaded at the dock facility shared by NSP and Port Hawkesbury Paper. “The choice to go to Quebec was pri-marily an economic one, as we do strive to find the lowest overall cost fuel sup-ply,” Campbell says. “It was an attractive economic proposition for us.” The price point that NSP offers to pur-chase biomass for has not changed since startup in 2013. And while there is not an overabundance of biomass currently in Nova Scotia, NSP has managed to keep its supply at the levels it set out to maintain. Rising energy costs, concerned about your heating bills in 2016? Be proactive with a Biomass boiler. Computer controlled and fully-automated, biomass systems from Viessmann feature industry-leading wood heating technology for safe, reliable, and trouble-free operation. More than 60 Commercial Biomass boiler installations across Canada Outstanding Efficiency of up to 85% Eco-friendly and CO 2 -neutral Sustainable and Economical , wood is renewable and free of wide price fluctuations Stringent safety -built to ASME, Section IV and tested to CSA/UL Safety Standards Two Types Available -Vitoflex RF (formally Pyrot -5 models) 512 -1843 MBH, and Vitoflex UF (formally Pyrotec -5 models) 1330 -4268 MBH Biomass industry creates jobs in Canada. viessmann.ca 1-800-387-7373 [email protected] Pellets Sawdust Woodchips Hog Fuel Canadian Biomass -Half Page Ad -02 09-2015.indd 1 Canadian BIOMASS 9/14/2015 9:06:18 AM 13
Canadian Biomass September/October 2015: Page 13
