Biomass Energy Heat and CO 2 coming from the Resolute pulp mill will power one of the most efficient greenhouses in the country, the Toundra Greenhouse. By Guillaume Roy The new ecological industrial era 48.65° North. It’s -10 °C outside and a foot of snow already covers the ground. An intense orange light appeared in the Northern Lac Saint-Jean skies just over a month ago showing some signs of industrial development. But forget about any forestry or aluminum development like the region is used to. This time around, it’s all about cucumbers. And it’s big – a $38 million green-house project spreading over 8.5 hect-ares of land. Inside, state-of-the-art Dutch technology produces amazing results: 360 cucumbers growing per square metre, much more than the fore-casted 275 per square metre. “It is now the most productive green-house in Canada,” states Eric Dubé, Toundra Greenhouse general man-ager, who compares the productivity to Quebec’s (80 cucumbers per square metre) and Canada’s (200 cucumbers per square metre) average. This means the production that started in November should reach a much bigger figure than the 45 million cucumbers projected. At the greenhouse’s inauguration on Dec. 14, 2016, everybody was cel-ebrating the creation of 200 new jobs in this rural area. Local investors, Eric Dubé, Caroline and Bertrand Fradette, are particularly thankful to Richard Garneau, CEO of Resolute Forest Products, who not only believed in the project, but also convinced his board to invest in the project to become a 40 per cent shareholder of Toundra Greenhouse. Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, Yearly production planned: 27 million Lebanese cucumbers and 17 million English cucumbers Forecasted productivity: 275 cucumber/m 2 Actual productivity after 1.5 months of operations: 360 cucumbers/m 2 MARCH/APRIL 2017 12 Canadian BIOMASS
Canadian Biomass March-April 2017: Page 12
