Transitioning away from coal. That was the main theme at Day One of this year’s WPAC conference in the nation’s capital.
Executive director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada (WPAC) Gordon Murray said the industry received the confirmation it needed this morning regarding the government’s commitment to reducing GHG emissions and making bioenergy more widespread across Canada.
“All of our focus, being here in Ottawa, has been to educate not only the producers, but the regulators, government people, and the power utilities who did show up in good numbers, about the benefits of biomass here in Canada,” Murray said. “We’re not going to have a successful industry unless we can demonstrate to the public and the governments how sustainable biomass is.”
Acting director general for Natural Resources Canada Rory Gilsenan said Canada is increasing its coal to biomass conversion to achieve reduced GHG emissions by 2030. “Biomass is Canada’s natural advantage,” he told the audience. “Your industry, the wood pellet industry, is part of a transformation of the forest sector.”
That transformation was spearheaded in Canada by Ontario Power Generation (OPG). Referring to its conversions to biomass at its Atikokan and Thunder Bay generating stations, which use white wood pellets and advanced wood pellets respectively, Murray said he hopes other power utilities will soon follow suit. “We’re really encouraged that companies like Capital Power have done a lot of work, and we’re optimistic that they’re going to make some positive moves with biomass,” he said.
From Canadian Biomass: https://www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca/pellets/coal-no-more-6496
