And there will be greenhouse gas benefits to the switch
M. McKinnon
Chris Fralick, Ontario Power Generation plant manager for its Northwest Thermal operations, emphasized last week that the company is actively working to ensure the biomass repowering project at the Atikokan Generating Station is undertaken in an environmentally sustainable manner as coal is phased out by the end of 2014.
He was, in part, responding to the report issued by Greenpeace earlier this month, Fueling a Biomess, which questions the sustainability of forest-based bio-energy.
His comments reflected work OPG has been engaged in since it started considering forest bio-mass as an option to coal some three years ago.
Most importantly, OPG will require that biomass fuel suppliers demonstrate third party verification that wood fibre is sourced from sustainably managed forests. Fuel supplies must also meet the UN definition of renewable biomass.
In 2010 the Environment Commissioner of Ontario recommended that OPG complete a comprehensive investigation of the assumption of carbon neutrality of the use of biomass as a feedstock in its coal-fired generating stations.
Through a competitive process, OPG hired the Pembina Institute, a Canadian environmental organization, to conduct a sustainability analysis, including the climate change implications of electricity generation using biomass fuel. The analysis included the harvesting and processing of two million oven-dried tonnes of Ontario forest-based biomass per year for use at four OPG coal plants. The key findings of the Biomass Sustainability Report are:
• The biomass concept is sustainable – A biomass program using wood pellets at a rate of 2 million tonnes per year is possible with no systemic decline in forest carbon stocks over time. (This fact, combined with Ontario’s sustainable forest management planning process and practices, means OPG’s biomass program can satisfy the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change definition of renewable biomass.)
• Significant greenhouse gas benefits – While not carbon-neutral, a wood pellet electricity pathway offers significant greenhouse gas benefits compared to fossil fuels .
• Significant social and economic benefits – The study models estimate 3,259 jobs could be created and $558 million could be added to the provincial GDP.
The Pembina Institute also analyzed a scenario that included harvesting and processing 100,000 tonnes of forest-based biomass, sourced from forest management units in northwestern Ontario, each year, for OPG’s Atikokan Generating Station (OPG called for proposals for 90,000 tonnes). The results of that analysis are:
• No systematic decline in forest carbon stocks over time.
• Using biomass to produce electricity at Atikokan GS is not carbon-neutral, but offers significant greenhouse gas benefits compared to coal and natural gas.
• Economic benefit will be concentrated in the local area. An estimated 160 jobs would be sustained.
(The full Pembina report, Biomass Sustainability Analysis, as well as a summary of the report, are available at www.opg.com/power/thermal/repowering/ The Progress carried a full story on that report August 4 of this year.)
OPG has submitted an application to the Ministry of Environment to amend its Certificate of Approval to operate on biomass. The application will soon be posted for comment on the Ministry’s Environmental Bill of Rights website.
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