PELLET PRINCE Few would be happier than John Swann, WPAC president and long-time pellet producer himself. “We’d stay home in a heartbeat if we could. Shipping bulk for export like we do car- ries a heavy capital investment and extra costs and risks to man- age. You’ve got to manage the rail service, charter the vessels, and deal with the associated risks. I could have retired on all the dead freight and cars I’ve seen over the years,” he adds with a laugh. Currently Swann says the European market accounts for 50 to 60% of Canada’s growing pellet production, the US for 30 to 40%, and then small domestic and some Japanese shipments the rest. Yet he too is optimistic that the domestic tide is turning. “It’s coming. Fossil fuel alter- natives are expensive and look to at least stay that way. It also seems that access to the environment for fossil fuel producers – in the form of GHG emissions – will no longer be free. We’re confident that change is happening. We can already save homeowners half of their heating bill, for instance.” Swann sees big potential for industrial users like greenhouses, which have seen their energy bills skyrocket of late. They would welcome a change to take more control over this cost centre, as- suming the payback was in the 1.5 to 2 year range and no longer. Dave Harrison, long-time editor of Canadian Greenhouse magazine in Simcoe, ON, confi rms that in- terest in biomass and bioenergy alternatives has accelerated over the past fi ve years, and has really taken off over the past 18 months in the face of record energy costs. “I’d have to say that labour is still the number one cost in our industry at around 40% of the total cost of doing business, but energy isn’t far behind anymore. There’s also a sense that natural gas is a very volatile cost. We’ve seen a lot of very big projects to convert to biomass – pellets in areas with ready supply, or wood construction waste in other ar- eas. Growers that have embraced it have been very happy, espe- cially those who have managed ers in that state, including bulk delivery and one-touch opera- tion. Swann is hoping biomass home heating will soon move from talk to walk in Canada and other states as well. People don’t buy their heating oil in gallon pails, so why should they buy their pellets in bags? long-term contracts for the wood supply.” He adds that BC is way out in front, thanks to the more readily available supply, but that growers in other areas, such as the Leamington area in southern Ontario, which boasts the largest concentration of greenhouses in North America, are looking at or have already invested in biomass options too. Then there’s the home heat- ing front, a big market in Europe. Swann feels we’ll need to take a page out of Europe’s book first if we want to make headway with busy Canadian homeowners. “We need to make it conve- nient for the homeowner, and we need to give them confi- dence in the long-term supply and distribution. In Europe you see some big players getting in- volved. When Shell says it will supply your pellets, that’s differ- ent.” The delivery and furnace systems are available (see World Bioenergy report on page 28), and in fact some northeastern US oil distribution companies are already talking about offering the pellet alternative. Also, new start up Maine Energy Systems is selling complete, automated pel- let heating systems to homeown- ACTIVE AID Still, neither he nor Bradley is willing to just sit and wait for it to happen. For starters, CANBIO is playing honest broker between technology suppliers and poten- tial biomass users to get things rolling. Aside from the organiza- tion’s recent tour through Swe- den and World Bioenergy this past May, its annual conference this October will include a trade show featuring bioenergy tech- nology experts from Finland, Austria and Canada. The orga- nizers are trying to build bridges between this knowledge and technology pool and the growing number of Canadian community leaders that are looking at bio- mass as a solution to their energy and local economy woes. “There were several commu- nity leaders from Quebec and Ontario at the recent World Bio- energy Conference in Sweden, looking for answers to outra- geously high local heating from oil or naturals gas. The need is there. So we’re talking about pel- let burners and boilers, heating systems, etc… from suppliers with experience who before they even meet here with the commu- nity representatives will know the circumstances and needs of those communities. We will work with them to be able to of- fer tailored solutions to the com- munity members we are inviting to our conference. Instead of the- ory, it will be actual solutions to real community situations.” There are a slew of options for such communities, from gas- ifi cation to simply burning the biomass in a boiler. Yet Bradley feels that in many cases commu- nities will be best served by pel- let technology. The technology to make pellets is readily available in Canada, and the end result is a uniform, dependable fuel source for local plants to use. Swann and Bradley’s organi- zations are also working together on a brand new initiative called Go Pellets. The program’s strat- egy will be hammered out this summer and unveiled this fall, but its general objective is to help develop a domestic market for pellets, as Swann explains. “I see its key role being to identify and promote domestic market opportunities, and work with the various agencies with an interest in moving away from fossil fuels to promote pellets as a real alternative, and to accelerate their development. We can help get the ball rolling, as a conduit between all interested parties. For example, in Europe you see programs that pay 25 to 30% of the conversion costs to move from fossil fuels. There’s support of the infrastructure. That sort of thing.” There are Canadian prec- edents of course, like programs by Hydro Quebec to subsidize conversions from oil heating to “dual-energy heating”, a mix of hydro and oil that maximized hydro use in warmer tempera- tures when demand was down, and switched to oil when the mercury fell below -15 C. When the alternative is to transport pellets some 7,000 km to burn in Belgium or Denmark, while we burn increasingly pre- cious oil, it all makes good busi- ness, and environmental sense. • CanadianBIOMASS 17
Canadian Biomass August 08: Page 17
