Written by Gordon Hoekstra
Citizen staff
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Thursday, 02 July 2009 |
B.C. Hydro continues to move ahead its second call for bioenergy projects, but will be taking a little longer to draft its request for proposals, in part to ensure it takes into account the risks of wood fibre supply.
Hydro will seeking input from government agencies, industry, First Nations and some stakeholders in the coming months.
The Crown utility launched the second phase of its bioenergy call three months ago in an effort to provide the province with clean electricity sources. Bioenergy, the production of electricity from wood, is considered environmentally friendly because replanted forests recycle the carbon burned in the power generation.
Forests Minister Pat Bell said despite the additional time being take to work on the proposal he still expects B.C. Hydro will meet its original timeline for tendering contracts in early 2010.
Taking some time now to ensure that the proposals lay out adequate information, will expedite the contract negotiations and their award, said Bell.
The second bioenergy call has two streams.
The first is a competitive call for larger scale biomass projects. Any form of biomass is eligible, including from forest products plants like sawmills, logging debris and dead beetle-killed pine abundant in the Northern Interior.
The target is to acquire 1,000 gigawatt-hours per year of energy, enough to power nearly 90,000 homes.
The second stream will focus on innovative, community level electricity projects. B.C. Hydro says it will try to identify at least two such projects.
B.C. Hydro is also considering the potential impacts from recent B.C. Utilities Commission decisions, including the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council judgment.
The B.C. Court of Appeal ruled earlier this year that the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council must be consulted on a deal that allows Rio Tinto Alcan to sell power from its Kemano facility west of Prince George.
The Carrier Sekani had asked to be heard in a B.C. Utilities Commission hearing on the electricity purchase agreement but was denied. The native council, which represents eight bands west of Prince George, wanted to appear before the commission on the issue of whether the Crown fulfilled its duty to consult before B.C. Hydro entered into the electricity purchase agreement.
During the first bioenergy call, B.C. Hydro selected two Prince George proposals to produce electricity from wood waste.
They are the P.G. Interior Waste-to-Energy Ltd. proposal to build a plant in BCR industrial site, and a project at Canfor Pulp's Prince George Pulp and Paper mill.
The P.G. Interior Waste-to-Energy project is meant to be completed in 2011 and would create 50 to 75 construction jobs and 65 to 75 permanent jobs at the power plant, on the forest floor and in trucking.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 02 July 2009 )
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