Move over, diesel How does bioenergy fit into Ottawa’s plan to reduce diesel reliance? BIOMASS CANADIAN Volume 18 No. 2 Editor -Maria Church (226) 931-1396 [email protected] Associate Editor -Tamar Atik (416) 510-5211 [email protected] Contributors -Gordon Murray, Mike Delegato, Frank H. Hedlund and Jeffrey C. Nichols, Marcin Lewandowski, Guillaume Roy, Maryam Mahmoudkhani and Pattabhi Raman Narayanan, and Marie-Hélène Labrie. 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Publication Mail Agreement # 40065710 Printed in Canada ISSN 2290-3097 Subscription Rates: Canada -1 Yr $56.00; 2 Yr $100.00 Single Copy -$9.00 (Canadian prices do not include applicable taxes) USA – 1 Yr $91.60 US; Foreign – 1 Yr $104.00 US CIRCULATION [email protected] Tel: (416) 510-5109 Fax: (416) 510-6875 or (416) 442-2191 111 Gordon Baker Rd., Suite 400, Toronto, ON M2H 3R1 Annex Privacy Officer [email protected] Tel: 800-668-2374 Occasionally, Canadian Biomass magazine will mail information on behalf of industry-related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above. No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission ©2018 Annex Business Media, All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. I n February the federal government announced a new program that will fund renewable energy projects in diesel-reliant communities. The program, called Clean Energy for Rural and Remote Communities, will dole out $220 million over six years for projects that support clean technology or develop local capacity in one of Canada’s 200 communi-ties or industrial sites that rely on shipments of diesel fuel for power and heat. I first heard in Janu-ary that this program was coming down the pipeline. Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) released a video in advance of the official announcement and after watching it I was confused. The video explains the prob-lems with diesel power gen-eration — transportation challenges, aging infrastructure, pollution — and mentions both wind and solar as solutions, but fails to mention bioenergy. Was the program going to exclude biomass as a renewable energy alternative to fossil fuels? Wood is already a common home heat-ing source in many rural, forested commu-nities. But there is a lot more that can be done to increase the efficiency of older sys-tems and to develop local biomass supply chains. When Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr officially announced the program de-tails on Feb. 16, it became clear NRCan recognizes bioenergy is an important part of the solution to transitioning away from die-sel. The program is divided into two tracks: • BioHeat, Demonstration & Deployment Program Streams • Capacity Building Stream Within the first tract proposals are being accepted for projects under three categories: Heat production from biomass, demonstra-tion of innovate technologies to reduce die-sel use, and electricity production from hy-dro, wind, solar, geothermal, and bioenergy. This program is wonderful news for the Canadian bioeconomy, and industry is already reacting. “I think this program is a huge game changer and will have a significant impact in terms of moving biomass heating forward. The fund-ing program validates bio-energy as a viable renewable energy option,” Fink Ma-chine’s David Dubois said in an email. “Biomass as a fuel source tends to be local and this aligns with many com-munities’ goals to have ener-gy independence.” Dan Adamson with Rad-loff Engineering was integral in the development and implementation of a wood gasification biomass project at Kwa-dacha First Nation in northern B.C. (read feature article in January/February issue). He says the program is good news for fund-ing feasibility and design work, but cautions the funding of new and highly innovative systems. “There is a need for proven tech-nology in remote areas,” he says. Adamson suggests that companies look-ing to sell their systems into remote com-munities need to ensure their equipment is robust, easy to maintain and repair, that parts are reasonably accessible, and that op-erators don’t need specialized tickets. Proposals for the program are being ac-cepted until May 17. • www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca 4 Canadian BIOMASS FEBRUARY 2016
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