heavily harvested and all those residuals are burned every year. There are tens of thousands of cubic metres in any given month available for an energy system. It just makes sense to close the loop on an economy where you are wasting resources,” he says. THE RIGHT SYSTEM Once the community-needs picture was complete, the team landed on plans for a modern combined heat and power (CHP) biomass ORC (organic Rankine cycle) dual-combustor system, likely around 1.2 MW. The dual combustors will be burning the biomass to create electricity and heat, while the ORC converts heated thermal oil into electricity. “The ORC system is very reliable and needs very little maintenance. These systems have run for 10 years or more without being taken down or having anything done to them. And there are about 400 of them running in Europe,” Hoy says. The combustors, which are relatively low tech, also allow for a more flexible fuel specification when compared to, for example, a wood gasification system. This is important since Tsay Keh Dene will be sourcing fuel from low-quality reservoir debris as well as harvest residuals from local forest licensees. “If you throw rocks in there, you don’t want to be doing that, but the system will tolerate it,” Hoy says. Having two combustors allows the community to control the heat output, turning one off when it’s not needed during the summer months, or when it’s time for regular servicing. The electricity produced from the biomass plant will then flow into a roughly 2 MWh battery system. The battery allows for system downtime, and also supplies extra energy to the system during peak demand when the biomass system can’t produce heat fast enough to meet needs. A 1.2-MW ORC system along with a battery will be enough energy to serve the 300-person village, as well as foreseeable growth for the next 10-15 years. The primary selected vendors for the project are CAW (Classen Apparatebau Wiesloch GmbH) for the thermal oil plant and Turboden for the ORC turbine generator. NEXT STEPS With CERRC funding in hand and a solid system design from Clean Energy Consulting, the project team is working through final engineering requirements and commercial agreements. Construction is slated to begin in late 2020 or early 2021. The system is expected to be fully operational in 2022. An ongoing challenge has been working with policy makers and the provincial utility to green light a change to a utility system that has been in place for decades. As with any bureaucratic change, they know it will take time, Tilson says. “It’s a long-term transition to have a community running on a biomass system that is, in and of itself, sustainable,” he says. But Tsay Keh Dene Nation has been waiting on this energy independence for arguably a half a century. It’s time. • JUNE 10-11, 2020 PRINCE GEORGE BC, CANADA BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE TOGETHER REGISTER NOW @ bioeconomyconference.com @BIOECONOMYCONF @BIOECONOMYCONFERENCE COMPANY/ BIOECONOMYCONF CB_Bioeconomy Conf_QP_Winter20_CSA.indd 1 Canadian BIOMASS 2020-02-13 8:00 AM 19
Canadian Biomass Winter 2020: Page 19
