IPG Gets Funds to Boost Bioenergy Industry

Friday, October 30, 2009 10:31 AM

Prince George, BC– The BC Bioenergy Network, a provincially-funded association which supports the bioenergy sector in B.C, has granted Initiatives Prince George $52,500 to to support the work of the Northern Bioenergy Partnership.

The Partnership is an industry-led collaboration with government, communities and the University of Northern B.C. to establish Northern British Columbia as a leader in the bioenergy industry. Objectives of the Partnership include attracting further investment of capital in the bioenergy sector to serve growing demand for green energy globally and establishing an industry led research initiative at UNBC.

The Prince George region is home to the province’s largest biomass based power generation project and two-thirds of Canada’s wood pellet production and export capacity.

Prince George companies have been successful recipients of funding from the Innovative Clean Energy fund, making this a natural geographic location for bioenergy cluster development. Manufacturing and engineering companies in the Prince George region have expertise that has been exported across Western Canada in the installation of new co-generation facilities.

“With the support of the BC Bioenergy Network, Prince George will lead the way in facilitating the growth of a competitive bioenergy cluster here in Northern British Columbia,” says Tim McEwan, President and CEO of Initiatives Prince George. “UNBC’s strength as a research institution and our region’s current leadership in commercial –scale bioenergy applications are strategic assets. This initiative will greatly support integrated economic development for the Province of BC” adds McEwan.

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Posted on Friday, October 30, 2009 10:31 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: MrPG on October 30 2009 11:32 AM

Great. Money for pamphlets, websites and powerpoint presentations.

Posted by: Eagleone on October 31 2009 5:08 AM

Maybe McEwan is earning some of his pay after all. I think they have the right idea on this one, but they should also be urgently working on a pulp diversity project for the North, so as to underpin any future forest industry.

Co-gen and bio-energy are not stand alone and are wholly dependent upon secondary split off products from saw mills and chip plants... saw mills and chip plants are wholly dependent upon selling the split off product for the highest utility in value, and chips for pulp/paper pays more then sawdust for co-gen. They all go together as a cluster and not just bio-energy in a silo of their own.

To underpin the cluster you need pulp operations... and to ensure a competitive market you need a diversity of pulp operations that produce a diversity of pulp products from egg cartoons, to paper bags, to paper plats and cups, to newprint, to cardboard boxes and you name it if we can ever reach that potential that is easily sitting there waiting for the right people to make it happen... then PG would never again know what a recession is, because we would have sustainable diversity.

Time Will Tell

Posted by: gus on October 31 2009 2:28 PM

http://ir.verenium.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=417039

"to explore the potential of our C5 technology to create biofuels from feedstocks sourced from the pulping process"

In other words ethanol produced from the byproduct of the pulping process, not ethanol produced from the feedstock that goes into the pulping process which is a byproduct of the log to lumber process.

http://www.verenium.com

Posted by: gus on October 31 2009 2:46 PM

A nice summary of the integration of bioenergy in a forest fibre source economy.

http://www.pulpwoodconference.com/past-conferences/2008/conference2008/pdf/hawkinswright.pdf

• FOREST OWNERS stand to gain if operations can be consolidated

• SAWMILLS are well positioned to benefit from growth in an alternative market for residues

• WOOD PANELS producers are more exposed
to competition for energy wood

• PULP AND PAPER producers have opportunities to diversify and develop counter counter-cyclical revenue streams from sales of heat, power, and biofuels