Plenty of Interest in Bio-energy Electricity

Wednesday, April 18, 2007 04:00 AM

B.C. Hydro has received about 50 expressions of interest in creating electricity through bio energy.

B.C. Hydro put out the call a little over a month ago to identify potential projects that would generate electricity using wood fibre fuel sources such as beetle killed trees, sawmill residue and logging debris.

At the recent Council of Forest industries conference in Prince George, one expert said the call for bio energy using wood fibre may not fly because of the costs involved, that designing the technology to collect and process the fibre may be too high to produce cost effective energy. The call for bio-energy ideas is aimed at addressing the surplus of wood fibre and debris in the wake of the mountain pine beetle epidemic.

The details of the expressions of interest, and the possible locations for such projects will be known later this week once B.C. Hydro has had an opportunity to examine all of the ideas.

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Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 04:00 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on April 18 2007 7:38 AM

Heard rumours that one of the city pulp mills will be mothballed this summer.

Any bets the co gen is not in the city of PG?

Posted by: Mcfly on April 19 2007 8:40 AM

ya rumours and $3 will buy you a coffee is about all though.

Posted by: Parrothead on April 19 2007 10:44 AM

Rumours are rumours - there are alway rumours. On the other hand, who knows what Canfor is gonna look like later this year - they're in for some serious changes.

Posted by: owl on April 19 2007 11:59 AM

"The call for bio-energy ideas is aimed at addressing the surplus of wood fibre and debris in the wake of the mountain pine beetle epidemic."

surplus or not ... the surplus is in the field ...

When farmers have a surplus they dump it, burn it, kill it to cut their losses ... or the government subsidizes them to get it to "market" and not grow anything next season.

So, whoever the "expert" mentioned in the article is, I agree with the take on it. Way too expensive to move dead trees for 100% use of energy.

Posted by: Chadermando on April 19 2007 1:20 PM

Sled guy I heard the same rumour. I hear the Inter-con digester would be shut down, but the rest of the mill would stay open. Kind of a first phase in the wind down. The Co-gen at PG Pulp would continue to operate IMO.

The way I see it is almost anything can be made profitable if it is not taxed. Harvesting unused wood fibre for electrical generation could be profitable with elimination of some or all taxes involved in the process. The up side would not be tax generation for our politicians to spend, but in energy security, use of fibre, and employment opportunities that such projects would generate.

Looking at the world through the government and politicians eye of tax generation has been one of the biggest problems with our society in the last 30-40 years IMO. Government policy should not be dependent on the ability to generate taxes, but in its ability to serve its citizens.

Posted by: owl on April 19 2007 7:15 PM

"employment opportunities that such projects would generate."

Ahh ... have I got employment opportunities ...

four lane the highway from here to Edmonton ... from here to Vancouver ... build a Performing Arts Centre ... build a few more smaller public pools in the suburbs ... build an enclosed farmer's market downtown and rent out the space at $5/sf ..... on and on ....

There are millions of subsidized jobs we can create ..... why the heck would we want to subsidize jobs that give people in other parts of the world cheap access to energy? ...

If we subsidize anything with our tax dollars, which is what that would be, I want that subsidy to go to something which benefits us, not others.

Posted by: owl on April 19 2007 7:17 PM

"Government policy should not be dependent on the ability to generate taxes, but in its ability to serve its citizens."

Good thought .... as yet the province cannot print money ... that is still a federal jurisdiction ...

Posted by: owl on April 19 2007 7:21 PM

Why do you think government loves volunteer organizations????? the more free labour, the better they feel.

And PG has the greatest amount of volunteer labour in the Province I understand.

And we are getting pumped about being that great at it ..... when really the others may not need it as much as we do because they are getting a "fairer" share of the tax dollar ....

Wonder how many ever think of it in that fashion????? Wonder if that makes any sense. In other words, is there some sort of measure which can tell us that my thinking is way off base, or whether it is actually close to the truth of the matter.

We always seem to complain that we are getting the short end of the stick. Maybe we are and the number of volunteers is an indicator of that.