Plans to burn pine-beetle-killed wood to generate electricity are gaining momentum in British Columbia, where a pine beetle plague affects some 9.2 million hectares, an area roughly three times the size of Vancouver Island.
The infestation has resulted in a scramble to cut affected wood before it loses economic value and to find alternative uses for pine-beetle- killed timber.
One of the most promising alternatives is using the damaged wood as fuel.
Today, two privately held companies are expected to announce an ambitious proposal to build a network of 15 to 20 small, community-based power plants in Interior B.C. that would turn wood waste, including pine-beetle-infested wood, into electricity.
The proposal, by Vancouver-based Nexterra Energy Corp. and Calgary's Pristine Power Inc., would see Pristine Power finance and build plants based on Nexterra's gasification technology.
The estimated cost of the network is $500-million.
Nexterra's technology converts wood residue from sawmills, or pine-beetle-affected wood, into "syngas" that can be used to generate electricity through steam turbine equipment.
Such systems can help mills reduce their energy bills and their greenhouse gas emissions.
A system installed last year at a plywood mill near Kamloops will save the mill more than $1.5-million in fuel costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12,000 tonnes a year, Nexterra says.
The joint proposal from Nexterra and Pristine Power follows a provincial plan in February that flagged the energy potential of beetle-killed wood and committed the province to becoming energy sufficient by 2016.
The plan also calls for 90 per cent of the province's electricity to come from renewable resources.
B.C. Hydro issued a request for expressions of interest in bioenergy proposals in March and has to date received more than 80 proposals.The Globe and Mail
