Electricity & Heat
What is it?
Coming soon...
Benefits
The most often cited benefits of AD are that its adoption helps:
- reduce on and off‐farm greenhouse gas emissions,
- reduce on-farm criteria air pollutant emissions and nutrient runoff into local water resources,
- stimulate rural economies,
- increase and diversify agricultural revenue streams,
- improve animal health,
- increase food safety and security through better manure management, and
- over overcome rural – urban odour related conflicts.
Furthermore, electricity production from biogas will help BC meet its goal to achieve electricity self-sufficiency by 2016 (as stated in the 2007 Energy Plan).
Feasibility Study - Anaerobic Digester and Gas Processing Facility in the Fraser Valley, BC
In 2007, the BC Bioproducts Association lead a multi industry and agency initiative to assess the feasibility of establishing an AD and co-generation/gas processing facility in the Fraser Valley that utilizes organic waste created from agricultural, food and fish processing, distribution, wholesale and retail activities. The key findings of the final report were that AD:
- Could reduce GHG emissions by > 300,000 tonnes CO2eqv/yr,
- Could create over $56 million in annual revenue and 600 jobs,
- Could produce 50 MW of electricity (enough for over 50,000 homes),
- Could reduce odour-related conflicts,
- While not solving excess nutrient issues directly, could enable investments in nutrient extraction technologies,
- Is more likely to be successful in the short term (due to BC’s current energy market), if the biogas is upgraded to biomethane, and
- Is not currently possible or feasible due to economic and regulatory barriers.
For a copy of the report, please see the document on the right hand side of this page.
