Project Financing Taking stock of biomass financing challenges and successes By Reg Renner Money matters inancing biomass projects in Canada is a very challenging event, with numerous participants and mixed results. The hurdles can be numerous and those who have tried to finance biomass projects have many bruises and scrapes to prove that it is difficult, but not impossible. Personally, I have been involved in financing biomass projects since 2004, when I left the forest nursery industry and saw the opportunity to finance biomass boilers in the greenhouse industry. With that introduction to the world of financing biomass boilers, I was soon off exploring the B.C. pellet industry and the challenges of dealing with millions of hectares of dying lodgepole pine. In 2006, I attended the Prince George International Bioenergy Conference (now called the Canadian Bioeconomy Conference) and realized that there was a lot of equipment that required financing and I could follow the conversations F relating to wood waste and developing biomass technologies. What I have since discovered is that financing biomass energy projects is more challenging than any of us imagined. We often underestimate the degree of difficulty and assume that outside investors are as passionate as us and love the challenges of combining biomass technologies with the numerous variables of forest harvesting and biomass processing. Therefore, the first step in financing biomass is to acknowledge that renewable energy can be addictive and habit forming. This warning indicates that we have to work extra hard to put our passions behind us and move into the world of reality. To finance biomass projects in Canada, we must be properly trained and prepared for the race. First of all, it will be more like a marathon race with a steeplechase water jump thrown in for excitement. We need to clearly understand that the process will challenge all our skills and patience and we must be properly prepared. I wrote a 10-part series for Canadian Biomass magazine in 2010 to 2011 on a financing checklist that is still applicable, if the chance of successful financing is to be increased to an acceptable level. Nine years later, I still believe that these 10 steps are essential to success. (Find the archived articles at www. canadianbiomassmagazine.ca.) When reviewing this biomass financing checklist, I began to realize how far we have come and how important the team approach still is. If we were to list the successful biomass projects in the past 10 years, most of us would agree the vast majority of these projects were completed by a professional team of forestry and energy experts. Canada will produce over three million metric tonnes of wood pellets in 2019 and there are now over 50 biomass boiler projects installed in just two regions: P.E.I. and SPRING 2019 24 Canadian BIOMASS
Canadian Biomass Spring 2019: Page 24
