19 July 2007
How Europe can help Canada realize the bioenergy opportunity?

Canadians don’t like wasting leftovers – especially when it comes to forests. But, how CAN forestry communities can turn waste wood into profit by using it to power existing operations or to produce renewable energy, fuels or products?

Canada has over 16 million tonnes of old bark sitting in piles, the bioenergy equivalent of Alberta’s tar sands, and each year over 11 million tonnes of leftover harvest waste is either burned or left to rot in the bush, stressed Douglas Bradley, President of the Canadian

Bioenergy Association (CANBIO), speaking at an Ottawa workshop last week.

"The problem is that harvesting leftover wood is still expensive and is not integrated into Canada’s harvesting practices like it is in Scandinavia where energy from wood is a boom industry. More than ever we need a bioenergy strategy to maximize energy creation from a mix of biomass sources,” Bradley emphasized.

That’s one of the reasons why CANBIO is organizing “Realizing the Bioenergy Opportunity,” a three-day international conference to be held in Toronto from 12-14 September 2007.

The event is intended to boost Canada’s bioenergy industry by bringing together European experts and investors, Canadian municipalities and the forestry sector to network and share business opportunities.

Good time for investments

According to Bradley, there’s never been a better time for European bioenergy investors and companies to partner with Canada.

“There is huge potential to develop onsite heat and power, or to develop ‘transportable’ woody biomass products such as condensed wood pellets or higher end fuels like bio-oil from fast pyrolysis, either for domestic use or for sale into the lucrative European market.”

Similar to feed-in tariffs in many EU Member States, the Standard Offer Program (SOP) introduced in Ontario last November offers all renewable energy generators a base rate of 11 cents (CDN) per kWh for electricity delivered, and projects delivering electricity during on-peak hours receive an extra 3.52 cents.

In the eight months since the SOP was launched contracts for wind energy have reached nearly 300 MW, solar has jumped from zero to almost 60 MW and bioenergy to almost 28 MW.

“The SOP has great potential to support bioenergy growth in Ontario. European expertise and technologies can help proponents and projects get off the ground faster and that’s what the Toronto conference is all about,” said Melissa Felder, an environmental consultant and CANBIO Director.

Visit the worlds' largest bio-oil plant

The CANBIO will feature speakers from the EU, the Canadian bioenergy industry, the forest sector and governments.

Delegates will also learn more about how to capitalize on European incentive systems and domestic initiatives like the SOP introduced in Ontario last November.

Canada’s Dynamotive is a global leader in fast pyrolysis technology and the Conference will offer delegates a rare chance to see the new 200 tonne per day bio-oil plant now operating in Guelph, Ontario – the largest bio-oil plant in the world.

The Conference program and registration form are available on the CANBIO website: www.canbio.ca.