Nova Scotia Power still wants to use biomass to generate electricity.
After having a proposed $60-million biomass project rejected eight months ago, the utility and NewPage Port Hawkesbury Ltd. are back holding talks.
"The discussions that have been going on are just trying to figure out how to make the project feasible," Robin McAdam, Nova Scotia Power vice-president (sustainability), confirmed Tuesday. "We took one run at moving the project along, which was unsuccessful. We’re just trying to find the formula that makes it feasible."
Last July, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board refused to approve NSP’s proposed contract with NewPage and Strait Bio-Gen Ltd. to generate more than $1-billion worth of electricity at the Point Tupper paper mill that would have been sold to the utility over 25 years.
By June 2011, the project would have provided enough power for 50,000 homes.
"The people of Nova Scotia and their government will have to decide what role biomass is going to play. We’ve tried to put the issue out there and get people talking about it and help people understand what’s involved.
"All energy choices come with advantages and disadvantages; biomass is like everything else — it has questions that have to be answered," McAdam told reporters after speaking at a Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters conference on energy efficiency in Halifax.
He said the project was turned down for two reasons: the board said it did not have the authority to deal with the project and the uncertainty of biomass prices in the future.
"There was uncertainty about the biomass index that was being proposed," he said. "They’re very complicated projects."
McAdam pointed out that "biomass doesn’t have to be trees. It could be a fast-growing crop like willows, alders or certain grasses. An opportunity may exist with the thousands of hectares of underutilized farmland in Nova Scotia."
McAdam said putting farmland to use for the security of fuel supply would allow the utility to spend $500 million a year on fuel here in Nova Scotia.
"That’s money that would go to local farmers and landowners, rather than to foreign coal companies. There would be a significant economic benefit to Nova Scotia — especially rural communities."
The utility has test-burned wood chips in a 10 per cent mix with coal, and with further modifications, other coal-fired power plants could use a larger concentration of biomass, he said.
NewPage had teamed up with Cape Breton Explorations Ltd. to form Strait Bio-Gen Ltd. for the proposed biomass project. The partnership planned to build a $60-million facility to burn wood chips in a biomass generator to power a 60-megawatt steam turbine at the Strait of Canso.
But last year after the project was turned down, NewPage announced it was no longer working with Luciano Lisi, who is president of Strait Bio-Gen and also heads Cape Breton Explorations.
McAdam said the utility continued discussions with NewPage about its intentions.
"The relationship between Luciano and NewPage, that’s their relationship; you would have to get NewPage to comment on respective roles."
A spokesperson for NewPage was unavailable for comment.
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