A two-hour Neighbourhood Energy Utility (NEU) workshop at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday (March 9) focused on the idea of building a biomass energy plant on the waterfront.
Committee of the Whole members, Lonsdale Energy Corporation (LEC) and district staff participated in a business and socio-economic feasibility workshop on NEU presented by Compass Resource Management partner Trent Berry.
"What we want to do in establishing viability is provide support for you to create municipal policy framework to support it," Berry said.
The workshop was the last of two prior to the release of the final report and an as-yet unscheduled public open house.
Berry presented a 65-page report focused on three heating energy alternatives - biofuel, ocean heat and natural gas co-generation - to council members. Although the report highlighted various advantages and disadvantages of each, Berry emphasized the creation of a biomass energy plant was cheapest to produce with the highest estimated return.
The report considered five locations in total but for the sake of simplicity, the feasibility study focused on one location, a piece of waterfront property which is estimated to consist of 20 per cent of the district demand.
"One thing to keep in mind is this isn't an engineering project. What you're doing is creating a business and we expect that business to over time continue to evolve and grow. It might start with that core area but it will ideally expand either on a voluntary or a policy supported way to other areas," Berry explained.
The report estimates Squamish would need 44,176 wet tonnes - assuming 50 per cent moisture content - of biomass fuel to supply the municipality with adequate energy.
Using a tool developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Compass estimates more than 44,000 wet tonnes of biomass fuel can be found within 10 km of Squamish.
By conservative calculations, Berry estimated a biomass plant would cost between $97 to $139 per MW/h, an ocean heat plant would range in cost from $121 to $157 and a natural gas co-generational plant would range in cost from $123 to $175.
Currently natural gas costs $90 to $100 MW/h.
Berry reminded council the estimates are very conservative and do not include any grants or additional funding sources.
Accelerating the rate of development, securing low cost financing and providing tax exemptions can significantly reduce the cost of the plant, according to Berry.
Compass is expected to complete the final feasibility report within a few weeks and present it to council. A public open house is also scheduled for the NEU project but a date has yet to be set.
