News
Bioeconomy
Cleantech Canada
News
Petawawa to “nudge” province on biomass plant project
March 26, 2025 By Hazel Atkins, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, North Renfrew Times
Mayor Gary Serviss of Petawawa, Ont. has written a letter to the Government of Ontario intended as a “gentle nudge” toward some movement on a proposed biomass plant in the town.
Council received a presentation last fall on a feasibility study by TorchLight (a bioenergy advisor and project developer) for a proposed biomass combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Petawawa.
The feasibility study seems to have become a trifle “bogged down in government bureaucracy, shall we say,” said Mayor Serviss.
“This letter is just designed to get out there to the new government in Ontario to let them know how important we feel this project is not only for our own area but for the whole province,” Serviss told council. “Considering some of the uncertainty going on right now in our province in terms of natural gas, which we use to heat our homes and businesses, we feel that projects like this are very important as an alternative means of powering and heating our local area.”
TorchLight chose Petawawa as a good potential spot for a biomass CHP plant because of the area’s large forestry industry and all the potential biomass materials that could be put to use.
“Not to mention,” continued Serviss, “the infrastructure already in place on Garrison Petawawa. It’s already in place to be readily hooked up to a plant like this.”
In his draft letter to Stephen Lecce, Minister of Energy and Electrification, which he presented to council on March 17, Serviss writes, “This is not a new idea.”
“But it is one that would change the fortunes for Ontario’s forestry sector and rural communities, while having a meaningful impact on natural gas imports and energy security in our province.”
Council voted in support of sending the letter.
Biomass combined heat and power is a process by which usable heat and electricity are generated from biomass resources, in this case from wood chips.
The gas released by the wood chips in a biomass boiler drives a generator.
“We aren’t asking you to be guinea pigs for experimental technology,” Dr. Jamie Stephen, managing director of TorchLight, told council in his presentation last September.
Using Stockholm, Sweden as an example, he showed council how every building is heated by a city-owned district heating system using underground pipes to take the heat from plants and distribute it to 190,000 residents.
It uses about 1 million tons of wood chips per year.
“It doesn’t have to be an ugly black box,” he added. “There are different ways of designing the plants.”
One big advantage of switching to a biomass heating system is that the existing buildings and infrastructure do not need to be changed.
Garrison Petawawa already has district heating and can readily be switched to alternative fuels without changing anything in the buildings to make the switch.
“The infrastructure is already in the ground and all it takes is a different kind of hook-up. This is very exciting in many ways,” Mayor Serviss said at the time.
Print this page