BioMASS update New school to heat with pellets An elementary school scheduled to be built on Fredericton’s north side will be the first in New Brunswick to be heated by wood pellets. The wood pellet-fired hot water heating boiler was in-cluded in the new school’s ten-der package that was issued in the spring. The hot water boiler plant will use wood pellets as the base fuel, supplemented by a natural gas boiler for extreme weather. The 500-kW biomass boiler will use about 300 tonnes of pellets annually. Most con-struction is expected to be com-pleted by October 2012. “We are committed to im-plementing provincial policies that encourage the use of wood pellets and other biofuels to heat provincial buildings,” says Biofuels fuNds availaBle Sustainable Development Tech-nology Canada (SDTC) has issued its annual call for ap-plications under the federal NextGen Biofuels Fund. The fund was created to support the establishment of first-of-kind large demonstration-scale facilities (biorefineries) for the production of next-generation renewable fuels and co-prod-ucts. The NextGen Biofuels Fund supports up to 40% of eligible project costs, with the contribution repayable based on free cash flow over a period of 10 years after project com-pletion. See the SDTC website (www.sdtc.ca). Photo: Government of New Brunswick Natural Resources Minister Bruce Northrup (left) and Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Claude Williams stand at the site of a future pellet-heated elementary school. Transportation and Infrastruc-ture Minister Claude Williams. “The Department of Supply and Services is reviewing pro-vincially owned buildings to identify viable opportunities for conversion to biomass energy. We are also encouraging the installation of biomass boilers to cover base heating require-ments on new construction projects, particularly in areas of the province where natural gas is not available.” 6 Canadian BIOMASS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011
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