Biomass Energy
Biomass from renewable plant and animal materials can be used to produce heat or power. Burning biomass to produce power results in substantially fewer harmful emissions when compared to traditional sources of power generation. Within Ontario there are extensive opportunities to make use of biomass materials from landfill sites, agricultural and livestock operations, and the forest industry. Ontario Regulation 232/98 under the Environmental Protection Act requires the collection of landfill gas for new or expanding landfill sites larger than three million cubic metres or 2.5 million tonnes. The production of energy from methane derived from animal manure wastes can serve to mitigate other disposal and surface or groundwater contamination concerns. Promising technological developments related to these fuel/energy technologies, such as anaerobic digestion technology could also have positive environmental and economic spin-offs for Ontario.
New Renewable Energy Sources
On November 24, 2004, the Ontario government announced the results of its Request for Proposals for 300 megawatts of renewable energy. Among the successful proponents were two new biomass (from landfill) projects:
- Trail Road Landfill Gas Generating Station, Ottawa (5 megawatts)
- Eastview Landfill Gas Energy Plant, Guelph (2.5 megawatts)
For more details about these projects and about other renewable energy projects related to this RFP, please read the November 24 news release.
A map showing the location of all the proposed new renewable energy projects is available in PDF format.
Please see Biomass in the Information for Developers section of this site.
