The Job Opportunities program has taken down a ton of beetle kill wood in and around Mackenzie since last fall and Canfor is running one shift for now.. wouldn't that be a start for the green energy project.. instead of it all being burned up? Seems like a waste to me.

I bet that is not enough to run a plant for more than one week.......

"Pristine is still waiting to hear more on the recent BCUC decision which nixed B.C. Hydro’s long term power acquisition plan."

Wise decision to wait. No responsible CEO can go ahead and take risks without complete clarity as to what is going to happen now after the BCUC ruling.

They simply can't afford to run without the waste fiber from sawmills. The only way this will work is if it is subsidized by tax payers, like most of these bio-energy scams.

Currently they generate enough hog fuel in Mackenzie from the chipper plant and one shift saw mill to run an operation like this. The issue of fuel sharing probably refers to the fact that Northwood has first dibs on all that hog fuel, and Northwood has their own future bio-mass projects planned as well... thus the sharing uncertainty.

Canfor fiber supply management is the real issue here.

This IMO is an issue similar to trim block supply to the finger joiner re-manufacture industry, or to a lesser extent the sawdust ie pellet industry. Its an issue that needs 'Free Enterprise' protection by government regulation of monopoly fiber supply arrangements, so that competition like Pristine is offering can have the protection of competitive certainty in the market place for their fuel supply.

This is an issue that rests squarely with the community of Mackenzie's elected representative Pat Bell. At last check Canfor has the monopoly on the only mills (& chipper plants) that are still running in this region. There is a win-win solution, but work would need to be done to facilitate this by the BC forest minister.

On the alternative a project like this would find no shortage of supply in Vanderhoof. Plateau fires a ton a minute into their beehive burner that could almost on its own supply the fuel required for this project. Canfor could easily access that supply if they put in the infrastructure at the mill to handle its shipping... and it would be the same distance as the supply they currently get from Mackenzie in the transportation costs for Canfor. I suspect the reason Canfor does not do this is because of productivity and engineers that can't engineer concerns.

Canfor is plagued by engineering projects that go sideways once the engineers designs are put to practical application. The PG Co-gen itself was a prime example of this in its early years... many many other examples abound.

The issue I suspect with Plateau is that it is a super mill with near world record production output capacity... this kind of output requires a lot of hog to handle in a just in time bin system set up... as is found in smaller mills that process their hog rather than burn it.

Unlike wood chips the hog fuel doesn't flow that easily and is more prone to hangups and freezeups (its moist and wet unlike dry wood chips) in the winter. If hog plugs up and shuts down a high production outfit the costs are enormous. Plateau is high-tec everything, and so the engineers would insist they put in their latest and greatest untried solution... and I don't blame management for being skeptical.

The facts are though it can be done if low-tec was the solution, or at least the overflow solution, and plans were made to handle any back-up problems before they arise. If management took the leadership insisted on by our elected officials and told the engineers how it will be done... and directed them to make it happen... it could easily be done and the fuel sharing concern would once again become an academic question, rather than the current make or break issue for a project like the Pristine project currently planned in Mackenzie.

In conclusion close the beehive burner in Plateau super mill and divert that hog fuel to PG, so that Mackenzie can keep their own local supply and make their bio-energy plan viable. We have the fiber supply we just do not have the political will.

This is an issue that those like John (TILMA lover) Rustad do not relate to. Likely John's latest hidden agenda was the architecture of the HST swindle on the people of BC (he has the time in the dark corners of the legislature to engineer these things with no one watching). John advocates a forestry policy that got Mackenzie and Fort St James in the situation they are in now (removal of local fiber supply protections) and his is one of a monopolist philosophy driven by pure numbers and not the big picture. John will be Canfors advocate for the status quo on this issue is almost a certainty in my view... even if his public words tell a different story.

Time Will Tell

Gus from a remote chipper plant they can produce a ton of hog for every three tons of wood chips. Most of these operations produce near two tons a minute of wood chips. The hog fuel supply is substantial... its just a matter of priority of access to this supply.

Eagleone..... I was responding to MacOldtimer's post in which he wrote:

1. Job Opportunities program has taken down a ton (metaphorically speaking) of beetle kill wood

2. Canfor is running one shift for now.

3. wouldn't that be a start for the green energy project.. instead of it all being burned up

My very specific question then becomes:

1. how much was actually removed?

2. How many shifts did canfor run bevore and how many did others run and where were the chips and hog going?

3. Is there an actual excess of fibre that is not being used anywhere? Sounds to me from the article that there is not. However, if there is, is it being burned up in a beehive burner rather than a co-gen?

As far as Plateau goes, I scratch my head evry time I drive by there why the burners that were supposed to have been shut down a long time ago are still going. I would give them one year to shut it down and fine them every day after that.

You people have no clue what 65 MW is. Its alot. Then try making it with sh!+ wood. Forget tons per minute. Think Megatons per second.

65 watts = just a bit more than an old 60 watt electric light bulb burning

65 kilowatts = 1,000 old electric light bulbs burning

65 mega watts = 1,000,000 old electric light bulbs burning

megatons of wood per second ...... WOW!!!!!

How many chip trucks per second would that be????? Sounds like more than 1 ..... :-)