Northwood Pulpmill Has Deal with BC Hydro
Friday, December 14, 2012 @ 4:43 PM
Canfor Pulp President Brett Robinson, announced $26 million dollar investment – photo -250NEWS
Prince George, B.C. – Canfor Pulp is pumping $26 million dollars into it’s Northwood pulp mill in order to bring the mill closer to energy self sufficiency, and to provide BC Hydro with 97 gigawatt hours of electricity each year. That’s enough electricity to power up nearly 9,000 homes in Prince George.
The project will see two turbo generators upgraded in the fall of next year, and President of Canfor Pulp, Brett Robinson hopes to have the power on the grid by Christmas of 2013. “That’s because that’s when hydro needs the power, that’s when all of us start cooking turkeys and turn all the lights on and there’s this big sucking sound on the grid. So we want to be part of that solution.”
Robinson says the goal is to make all three Canfor mills self sufficient in terms of power generated and used, and produce enough excess power to be sold to B.C.Hydro. He estimates the $26 million dollar investment will have a 5 year pay back period. Another plus is that improvements in technology mean the energy can be produced using about 1/3 of the fuel requirements previously needed.
These are changing times for pulp mills. With the demand for paper falling, the mills are looking for other customers, and power generation is a key component. Robinson says with pulp prices fluctuating and power prices holding steady, this kind of project will “keep us from going below water at times. We’ll actually be breaking even at the very bottom of the market (pulp prices) and making money.”
He says there will continue to be a demand for certain types of papers, tissues in particular, and he doubts the mills will ever be produced just power, “But what the forward thinkers see the pulp mill of the future as a bio refinery. There’s new and emerging technology today, where we’re actually taking our fibre and breaking it down further then building it back up to what’s called a poly chain molecule, a plastic, and there’s some pretty exciting opportunities there.”
The P.G. Pulpmill is already self sufficient and is selling excess power to the B.C. Hydro grid, and there are plans in the works to make the Intercon mill self sufficient as well.
Comments
Wonder what kind of kick back cheques Canfor is going to get for all the power they put on the grid. Bet they are going to clean house in no time $$$$$ Ka…..ching!
How much will the fiberals, sorry hydro pay for the power. Saying that this type of co-operation makes more sense than very expensive run of river or very very expensive bird killing wind generaters
Ya… the grap this mill puts out as never killed a bird or more
Love it!! Self sufficient sounds pretty badass to me!
This is good news, it leads to long term sustainability of the Northwood mill.
Anything that keeps these mills viable and sustainable is a good thing. We need the good paying jobs that are out there for sure…..
An over abundance of available hog fiber makes this decision a no brainer. They can’t burn the stuff in a beehive burner anymore. Generating their own electricity gives them some energy pricing stability as well, which is always a good thing in this era of energy inflation.
Not so sure about “over abundance”, less mills producing hog and pellet plants competing for fibre. This is however good news. This may be the last announcement regarding Hydro buying power, they just don’t have the demand.
At times it is cheaper to make power with gas, due to the high cost of fibre(hog fuel, biomass), than it is to burn wood. Although wood is “carbon neutral”, one could argue that natural gas burns cleaner.
Only the new LNG plants will be allowed to generate power using gas. If they ever come to fruition.
While this news bodes well for Northwood and Prince George, this governments energy policy is absolutely terrible.
Taking BCHydro from one of the top utilities in the world to the financial basket case it is today, granting river rights to corporate buddies allowing them to jeapordize rivers to make power we don’t need, and a handful of other questionable decisions along the way.
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