ABOVE: Doug Bradley, CANBIO and Climate Change Solutions president says export markets will continue to drive the pellet sector. LEFT: John Swann, president of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada. “Weʼd stay home in a heartbeat if we could,” he says in explaining Go Pellets, a new program to promote domestic pellet use. and shipper. With 25 plants in Canada in 2008 producing an average of 56,000 tonnes/year, we compare to an average plant size of 17,000 tonnes in the US and 16,000 tonnes in the EU. The European market has been a boon to Canada’s growing pellet industry, and will likely continue to be, as Doug Brad- ley, president of both Climate Change Solutions and Canadian Bioenergy Association (CAN- BIO) explains. Yet things may be about to change. “Export markets have driven the building of pellet plants in Canada until now, and those markets will continue to drive the fi nancing and building of new ones. Yet we expect that gradually over time the domestic market will grow, and the export volumes will shrink.” That will likely be a good thing too, for if nothing else the current lumber markets should teach Canadian forestry sup- pliers the importance of mar- ket diversification. Moreover, 16 CanadianBIOMASS as shipping costs rise alongside diesel costs, it’ll be good to have options if and when the Euro- pean equation no longer makes sense. Bradley feels all the indica- tors are pointing in this direc- tion. For starters, we have lots of biomass, and an increasing political will to use it. “There are 12 million tonnes of old hog fuel that have been lying around for 30 years, and that’s just a start. Four of our forestry provinces – BC, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick – are now adamant about using harvest slash for something other than piling and burning it at roadside. It’s being wasted now, so it makes sense.” Also, Canada is rapidly mov- ing to a carbon credit system, one of the key ingredients behind the development of Europe’s blazing biomass sector. While provinces are making tentative steps, some better than others, Bradley con- fi dently predicts that “we will have a national carbon trading system here within two years.” AUGUST 2008
Canadian Biomass August 08: Page 16
