B.C.’s biomass energy sector believes it has a unique opportunity in the aftermath of the mountain pine beetle infestation that has ravaged 18 million hectares of provincial forests, but it needs a little help from Victoria. Gordon Murray, the executive director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada, which makes fuel for biomass power, says…

Within one year, Ontario Power Generation brought online two pellet-fueled power stations, both converted from coal. While Atikokan Generating Station uses traditional wood pellets to generate up to 200 MW of electricity, Thunder Bay Generation Station is a peaking plant that uses advanced biomass pellets. Ontario Power Generation has made a name for itself within…

The province of Quebec has a lot of trees and forests, and a nascent Cross-Laminated Timber industry. Now Quebec City’s Pointe-aux-Lièvres eco-district is getting a 13 storey tower constructed of mostly CLT, 12 storeys of apartments on top of a concrete podium. Designed by Yvan Blouin, the building is a condominium being marketed as the…

Much ado has been made of late about the advantages and, increasingly, the potential disadvantages of using wood to create energy. Figuring out what’s what on that front has taken on new urgency, with renewable energy policies in Europe driving an unprecedented boom in the use of manufactured wood pellets to generate electricity. The vast majority of that wood…

An estimated eight million tree seedlings were damaged this season, affecting both industry and the province’s tree planting plans. That works out to about five per cent of the 264 million seedlings grown in nurseries across the province, said Allan Powelson, who is a reforestation specialist with the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource…

After seeking a renewal to their energy selling agreement with the provincial government for over a year in order to remain open, the Cochrane Power plant will be shut down if doesn’t get a new contract, or an extension to its current one, by midnight tonight. Northland Power, which owns the plant, has until tonight…

The Yukon government is looking at plans to develop biomass energy to help lower their fossil fuel imports to the area. Yukon is one of Canada’s three of federal territories. “A biomass energy strategy will guide the development of an emerging sector that can offer yet another much-needed solution to deliver adequate energy during our…

Forestry scientists are looking for the help of New Brunswickers to track spruce budworm populations as an outbreak in Quebec approaches the border. It’s been about 35 years since the spruce budworm was last a problem for New Brunswick. But across the border in Quebec, about 4.2 million hectares of forest has been infected during…

From the wood-powered steamboats that once plied the Yukon River to the high-efficiency home wood stove, Yukoners have long relied on their forests for fuel. But maybe not enough, according to the Yukon government. The territory has drafted a new “biomass energy strategy” that would see a move toward more use of wood fuel to…

Softwood lumber exports were 5-8% higher in Canada, Russia and the Nordic countries in 2014, but lumber prices fell toward year’s end on a strengthening U.S. dollar and weaker wood markets in Europe and Asia. Global trade of softwood lumber has continued to trend upward ever since the global financial crises in 2008. In 2014,…