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Biomass already a significant source of renewable energy

The president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), Avrim Lazar, says that with the right government support the Canadian forest industry could produce enough clean renewable energy to replace nine nuclear reactors.

The president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), Avrim Lazar, says that with the right government support the Canadian forest industry could produce enough clean renewable energy to replace nine nuclear reactors.

In early October, Lazar appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources as part of its study of the current and future state of Canada’s energy system and its goals of defining a Canadian Sustainable Energy Strategy.

According to the Canadian Industrial Energy End-Use Data and Analysis Centre, biomass ranks second after large hydroelectric facilities in producing renewable energy in Canada, and also creates almost three times as much energy as wind.

“We could easily triple our clean energy output using waste products from our mills,” says Lazar. “Already we are self-generating about two thirds of our energy needs and about a half dozen of our mills are now net exporters of energy to provincial grids. Further developing this significant source of green energy needs to be a larger part of governments’ energy development plans.”

The Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program (PPGTP) is already helping Canadian pulp and paper mills increase their production of renewable energy, and when the program is fully completed, will mean an extra 2.1 million MWH/year, enough to power nearly 174,000 homes.

“We need to keep that momentum going,” says Lazar. “Governments have an important role to play to further help mills accelerate their transformation and add on the production of bio-fuels, bio-chemicals and other bio-products to their existing product mix.