Canada's Green University will become a little greener next year with an upcoming $2.2 million expansion to the school's bioenergy heating system.
The University of Northern B.C. kicked off its 25th anniversary celebrations Tuesday morning with the announcement of financial and material contributions from the provincial and local governments, as well as private industry.
The school's Sustainable Communities Demonstration Project models a northern, rural off-the-grid community that serves as a platform for education and research. The local campus already has almost three-quarters of its heat generated from wood pellets and sawmill residue. The expansion will allow UNBC to begin connecting its student residences, enhanced forestry lab and daycare facility to a new district energy system, cutting down on the use of fossil fuels for heat.
"What an ingenious way to reuse and recycle a local product and support the local economy," said B.C. Advanced Education Minister Amrik Virk, who announced the government's $1.1 million contribution to the project. "This university, it connects teaching, it connects research and it connects campus operations but it also connects to the community and the entire north of B.C. The bioenergy system has already diversified the forest industry and ensured that B.C.'s absolutely precious forest resources are used for multiple, multiple products."
The announcement came on new UNBC president Daniel Weeks' first official day on the job.
"How lucky am I?" said Weeks. "It's incredibly appropriate for one of my first official events here at UNBC to really be part of a project announcement that embodies really the very mission, values and the commitment of this university to the north."
That commitment to the north is part of the reason TransCanada signed on to the project, said executive vice president and president of development Alex Pourbaix. Though most may know the company as specializing in pipelines, TransCanada also heavily involved in renewable energy projects.
The company is committing $400,000 to the UNBC system expansion.
"We are proud to support UNBC's bioenergy initiatives because as Canada's largest private-sector power generator, we recognize the need to move towards a less carbon-intense energy future," said Pourbaix.
Money is also coming to the project from the Omenica Beetle Action Coalition - made up of representatives from 14 local governments - and the BC Bioenergy Network, contributing $100,000 apiece.
Prince George-based Pacific Bioenergy is supplying the wood pellets and vice president Brad Bennett said his company - marking its 20th year - and UNBC have grown up together.
"We first started this, nobody could spell biomass and nobody knew what a wood pellet was," Bennett said. "Really what this system will show is the commercial application of using biomass and wood pellets."
Fifty per cent of the province isn't on the natural gas grid, he said, emphasizing the need for practical applications of wood energy.
"I see throughout rural British Columbia schools, community halls operating on propane. This is a very viable alternative," said Bennett. "We just need somebody to demonstrate and show that."
Construction is expected to begin soon on the expansion.
