Bio-energy production in the BC forest industry

Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in bio-energy in BC. The BC Hydro bio-energy calls, Federal Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program, BC Bio-energy Strategy, Biopathways project, and the MLA’s Bio-economy Strategy are all examples of the growing enthusiasm for bio-energy. All of these programs and strategies anticipate a substantial growth in bio-energy in the near future. However, very little data exist on the current level of bio-energy production and use of wood fibre. This lack of data severely limits our analysis of the true potential of bio-energy

The presentation by Adam Kamp will summarize a project that surveyed bio-energy producers in the forest sector to document current production. The results show that bio-energy already consumes 30% of the biomass from BC’s harvest. This fibre was used to create approximately 125 PJ of thermal energy and 19 PJ of electricity in 2011. The thermal energy is the equivalent of heating 1.3 million houses. The results suggest that growth in bio-energy production from forests is already constrained by the competition for inexpensive fibre from mill residues.