Megawatt: British Columbia Renewable Energy Law Blog : BC Renewable Energy Blog : Clark Wilson Law Firm : Green Power, Natural Energy

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The University of Northern British Columbia, located in Prince George, BC has selected Vancouver based, Nexterra Energy Corp. to supply and install a turnkey biomass gasification system to heat UNBC's campus and anchor its new Northern Bioenergy Innovation Centre.

According to the press release issued last week, Nexterra's system is part of a $14.8 million bioenergy program that includes upgraded road and utility infrastructure, a new building and a "living laboratory" for bioenergy research and development. The Nexterra gasification system will convert locally-sourced wood residue into clean-burning "syngas" that will displace up to 85% of the natural gas currently used to heat the campus. The project, which is jointly funded by the federal and provincial governments, is expected to begin in June 2009. It will be complete by mid 2010 and construction will support approximately 150 jobs.

By using wood residue to displace natural gas, UNBC will reduce its fossil fuel consumption by 80,000 GJ/year, the equivalent of natural gas required to heat over 700 homes in B.C. The new system will also reduce the university's carbon footprint by approximately 3,500 tonnes annually, the equivalent of taking 1,000 cars off the road.

This is a great story about the future of British Columbia. Here we have a BC based company supplying its homegrown green energy technology to a BC university, with the fuel for the plant coming from the local forest industry. I call this a win-win for the people of Prince George and the Province of British Columbia.  Not only will Nexterra's system help provide a much needed market for local forest waste and foster further research and innovation in the growing renewable energy sector, UNBC's decision to replace natural gas with biofuel to heat its campus will also contribute in the critical fight against climate change.

The way I see it, when there are viable non-GHG emitting alternatives to traditional sources of energy, let's just simply use them. UNBC's initiative is just another example of fresh forward thinking, something we all expect out of an institution of higher learning.