Ontario: Replacing Coal with Biomass

Stephen Lacey, Editor
September 17, 2010 | 3 Comments

As part of an effort to phase out all coal plants in the Canadian province of Ontario by 2014, the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) is working with power-plant owners to close facilities down or transition them to burn biomass.

One such facility, the 211-MW Atikokan Generating Station, will be the first to move entirely to biomass. This week, the government of Ontario directed the OPA to draft a power purchase agreement with the plant's owner, Ontario Power Generation.

Ontario Power Generation owns three other coal plants in the Province, and has said it wants to convert all three by 2014. According to Biomass Magazine, the coal plant will require about 99,000 tons of wood pellets year.

As part of its “Green Energy Act” passed last year, the Ontario government set an ambitious target to phase out coal plants in 5 years. Many people have criticized the target, saying that it's not realistic and will de-stabilize the grid.

However, according to figures from the OPA, generation from Ontario's coal plants is already down more than 70 percent from 2003 – the lowest level in 45 years. Publicly, officials from the OPA and Ontario government have said they think the phase-out target is realistic.

In Europe, the “re-powering” of coal facilities has been underway for some years. In the U.S., a number of other companies are also experimenting with using biomass in place of coal. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, it would take about 1.6 billion tons of biomass to re-power all existing U.S. coal plants. The DOE reported that the U.S. could sustainably grow 1.3 billion tons of feedstock.

Of course, not every coal plant is going to convert to a biomass-burning facility. But theoretically, we have enough resources to transition a large portion of our coal fleet here in the U.S. The Wood Pellet Association of Canada has been trying to make a similar case.

The combination of robust feed-in tariffs for renewable energy and a mandate to close all coal plants will speed up the process in Ontario. If the Ontario government is successful in its effort, other states in the U.S. may look to the province as a model for shifting away from coal.

In 2009, the utility Georgia Power announced it was going to transition a 155-MW coal facility to burn biomass. The utility has since delayed the project due to uncertainty around Environmental Protection Agency regulations of boiler emissions (to see why this might hurt the industry, see this piece of commentary).

However, in the video below, the Georgia Farm Monitor gives us a preview of the transition.

3 Comments

Lawrence Carroll
September 24, 2010

It should be noted that the forest-products industry has long used the "waste" from trees -- the branches, pine needles etc. -- to produce electricity for its paper making and other plants. While it is inspiring to note that biomass was in use for electricity generation long before the current concern over CO2 and mercury emissions, the problem - as david-doty-31004 points out - is the amount that will be needed if it is looked upon as the "only" alternative.

Thus, I too agree that solar thermal, wind power etc. etc. and the many other alternative methods also be emphasized.

It seems that every time an article here touts one of the new or improved alternative methods, some readers get the silly idea that the article is touting that method as the ONLY one that is needed - and that it is looked upon as some sort of panacea, when such is not the intent of the writers. :)

David Doty
September 22, 2010

There are serious efficiency and corrosion challenges when the biomass co-firing fraction exceeds 15% of the coal, but even 15% is not sustainable from an environmental perspective. The above estimate of a ratio of 1.6:1 for biomass to coal considers only the input energy content. The full biomass plants achieve 30% lower thermal efficiency than advanced coal plants. So the needed biomass to coal ratio is over 2:1. That would imply the world needs 13 Gt of biomass. The global annual demand for biomass for purposes other than food and fuels (mostly houses and paper) will likely grow by 1 Gt over the next century. There is serious doubt whether the planet can sustain even that, leaving no new biomass for fuel and not enough for food. Most of Europe, Africa, Asia, and the middle east have essentially zero sustainable biomass growth capacity.

Fortunately, there is a better solution. Scientists have shown that off-peak wind energy can be used to recycle CO2 into gasoline, diesel, ethanol, and jet fuel at up to 60% efficiency. These wind-generated carbon-neutral fuels, dubbed WindFuels, will sometimes compete when oil is only $50/bbl. Recycling CO2 into liquid fuels using off-peak wind energy addresses both the oil and the climate challenges, and it completely stabilizes the power grid. There is sufficient wind resource to supply all the domestic energy needs in the U.S. and make twice its liquid fuel requirements. The wind resource is similarly favorable in the U.K, China, and elsewhere.

Detailed scientific, engineering, and economics analyses are available at http://windfuels.com/ . The cost of producing diesel or gasoline from CO2 and wind energy will depend mostly on the cost of the off-peak wind energy, which is already sometimes free. Last year, there was sufficient curtailed wind energy in the middle of the night to make over 500 Mgal of fuels.

Grace Ocean
September 17, 2010

Sounds like a good transition plan if it will use the waste in the environment without adding additonal cost. They should also consider transitioning to Solar in rural areas in the long run.
I have seen businesses transition under excellent leadership without any problems with consensus from all parties therefore I know successful transitions can be done.
Regards,

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Stephen Lacey

I am a reporter with ClimateProgress.org, a blog published by the Center for American Progress. I am former editor and producer for RenewableEnergyWorld.com, where I contributed stories and hosted the Inside Renewable Energy Podcast. Keep...