A new $45 million power plant at Harmac’s pulp mill in Nanaimo will add electricity to the grid through an agreement with B.C. Hydro.
The new co-generation system will burn wood waste to turn steam-driven generators to produce power for the Harmac pulp mill, with surplus electricity to be sold to BC Hydro.
According to the Nanaimo Daily News, Nanaimo Forest Products, which owns the Harmac mill, has signed a 15-year purchase agreement under which BC Hydro will receive more than half of the electricity generated by the 25-megawatt power plant – enough power to supply 17,000 homes.
“We expect that we’ll have the test runs of the plant’s systems complete by the end of this week or next week,” Harmac CEO Paul Sadler told the Nanaimo Daily News, which is owned by Business in Vancouver’s parent company Glacier Media Group.
Energy self-sufficiency has long been a concern for Vancouver Island, which gets much of its power from the mainland via marine cables.
Attempts by a private company to build a $370 million natural-gas-fired plant in Nanaimo – the Duke Point Power plant – was rejected over concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and economics.
