The recent government shake-ups have caused some concern that climate action initiatives, the legacy of Premier Gordon Campbell, could be at risk, there is cause for optimism.

BC Sustainable Energy’s Peter Ronald expressed some of those concerns in his Nov. 24 blog, and he hasn’t been the only one asking the question of how the shuffle of the energy and forestry ministries, and the change in premier and other important government personalities will affect climate action initiatives.

“Individual personalities are often extremely important in shaping government policy…,” Ronald said in his blog.

“Premier Campbell…has, amidst other priorities and initiatives, put action on climate change at the centre of much of his public policy efforts.

The carbon tax, greenhouse gas emission targets and clean energy agenda of this government reflect this commitment.”

And as he points out, no one knows who the province’s new leader will be or what stance that individual will take in regard to climate action. The advent of that new leadership has prompted the BCSEA to start now to ask the tough questions of all the potential candidates to determine their opinions about the issue and urgency of addressing climate action, said Ronald.

While “so far, they haven’t given us much to go on,” he also added that a recent meeting with Minister of Natural Resource Operations Steve Thompson, and knowing the views of some of the other resource sector ministers, allow him to “feel comfortable that Premier Campbell’s legacy…will live on beyond his term”.

Minister of State for Climate Action John Yap tended to agree. “I expect that taking action on climate change will continue to be an important part of our agenda,” he said.

He also noted that the shuffle of resources ministries held the intent of better managing the province’s resource sector applications and gave the example of providing improved predictability for industry.

As strongly supported as sustainability is within the general public of the Peace, Ronald remains cognizant of the power of the oil and gas industry and compares the sustainable energy projects coming out of this region as “a drop-in-the-bucket against the oil and gas agenda of the present government”.

The amounts of money invested in sustainability initiatives, for example, is a “pittance” said Ronald, when compared to the government subsidies to the oil and gas sector, and that in a climate favourable to sustainability under Premier Campbell’s leadership. There is no ‘gravy train’ that current or future premiers are likely to throw at renewable energy, he adds.

“The Liberal Government will always have an ear for the business sector, and that’s certainly appropriate, but ‘sustainability’ requires that a balance be sought among social, environmental and economic priorities,” said Ronald.

On the issue of carbon offsets, a potentially costly proposition for industry, Yap said that the process is ongoing and that it must “work for BC”. He clarified that Cap and Trade has always meant putting a price on carbon but added that “at the end of the day it has to work for industry”, lending support to Ronald’s contention that the power of industry is alive and well and impacting the decisions of government.

Even though candidates are likely to take the position they see as most likely to get them elected, said Ronald, that position could as easily be against sustainability as for it. Governments are mercurial by nature and tilt at a change of the wind. Despite that, there is cause for some optimism.

Even the leadership contest gives a false sense of authority of a single person, said Ronald, and that may be one of the balancing factors at the end of the day.

“We all see that there is climate change, and that there’s an opportunity to take action and taking action is part of mitigating the impact on climate change but also provides economic opportunities…I look at this as economic opportunity that climate change is providing,” said Yap.

“All of these (specific actions) tie into taking action, on climate as a government so a government is made up of not just the premier but a government that takes action as a whole.” Economic opportunities however, are often more closely aligned with industry priorities than with environmental ones.

The BCSEA among others will be watching to see how the wind blows with the most recent government changes and have promised to keep the issues of sustainability and the green agenda in the awareness of whoever is in power in hopes that the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts.

Never to be outdone when it comes to renewable resources, Aeolis Wind has taken a second look at how wind towers are constructed. Instead of unwieldy and carbon-expensive steel construction, the towers themselves could be made of wood in the near future.

“It would bring a way to use the abundant timber resources we have in BC and we see the potential, not only for doing projects in BC, but also for export to other jurisdictions,” said Aeolis Wind/Canadian Timber Towers president Juergen Puetter.
Pine beetle killed wood “is nearly ideal because it has long fibres”, said Puetter, and BC has plenty of that. The BC forestry industry stands to benefit over the long-term if Puetter’s plans are realized.
“Ultimately, the plan is to build a facility so that we can use some of the pine beetle and other wood to make it into these wooden towers,” said Puetter.
While the choice of a manufacturing site teeters between the Prince George area and the Peace Country, Aeolis has a history in this area and projects already in place here.
It’s a very ‘Peace-centric’ idea, said Puetter, adding that the Peace “makes a lot of sense” to him as a manufacturing site.
“The problem with this is nobody wants to be the first. Everybody thinks it’s a good idea and they want to be second or third but not first. So, we’re pleased to have made an arrangement with Northern Lights College…”
The first tower will be erected in Dawson Creek at Northern Lights College and will serve as a teaching tool for Wind Turbine Technician students. It will only be the tower itself however, a full scale working wind turbine will be located east of Dawson Creek, just north of the airport, said Puetter. Both of those should be up by mid-year next year.
Regardless of where the components are ultimately going to be manufactured, or what they will be made of, proponents are just waiting for some of the details to be finalized – and financed.
It’s not a new idea. There is a strong European history of this kind of product in this and other applications. Germany can boast wind towers, some to as much as 150 metres tall, and in London, UK, a nine-storey apartment building was constructed a few years ago with positive results.
But it’s new to this country and, as Puetter points out, no one wants to be first despite the long list of benefits to using wood construction. In addition to providing job opportunities, wood towers are carbon-neutral, renewable, fire-resistant, bug resistant, mould resistant, rust resistant, durable and cost-competitive with steel.
“One of the big problems with wind turbines is you have a very, very large mass sitting on top of a thin, long tower that’s rotating, so you can get dynamic oscillations.
“Wood on the other hand is inherently non-resonating, particularly being cross-laminated,” said Puetter.
He also suggested that towers could be dismantled and burned “without any toxic or harmful emissions”, making it a green product from cradle to grave.
“Think of plywood on steroids,” said Puetter. “A plywood panel is ¼ inch, ½ inch. Imagine a one foot thick plywood panel and that’s essentially what you have.”
“The key to the whole thing is the wood has to be properly dried…and the lamination process has to be done under very, very high pressures, so you need a special facility with big presses because these are very large sheets that are made – eight metres or longer (25-40 feet).”
Cross-lamination provides incredible strength by layering wood fibers both horizontally and vertically. This reduces swelling and shrinking in the panels and adds to the panel’s ability to withstand stresses. The result is that loads are not transferred in only one direction, but to all sides.
Once manufactured, timber towers can be transported in 40-foot containers making then an ideal option for export, unlike the much larger and heavier steel towers that are the current norm.
The lighter wood option offers simplified transportation options while reducing the carbon footprint inherent in transporting goods – a win-win in Puetter’s opinion.
Once on-site, installation can be done primarily with light cranes and less fuss, further reducing costs and impact.
“When it comes to site it’s basically like a Lego set that you just put together,” Puetter explained.
With all the potential benefits to cross-laminated timber towers, he’s betting that it’s only a matter of time until wooden towers become an integral part of the BC wind energy potential.

Exhaust streams can now be turned from waste into usable power thanks to ‘The Power Stack’.

Patented by 45 Innovations, this generator is one of the few alternative energy technologies to bypass the vagaries of Mother Nature, and first power generation system that utilizes existing waste streams or emissions and converts them to clean, stable, cost effective electricity.
“During the course of the last couple of years working with alternative energy and in the oilfield we discovered a need to kind of marry the two industries together, so we developed a generator that works much like a wind turbine only it doesn’t depend on wind, it depends on a exhaust stream,” said developer Drennen Hallett.
Every well site, lease site or facility that has an engine, motor or compressor can now transform the inevitable exhaust streams into usable energy.
Placed above the exhaust stream, The Power Stack creates electrical energy onsite that can then be used or sold back to the grid, depending on microgeneration. Wasted potential currently going up a stack everyday can be turned to productive use in an environmentally responsible manner.
“What we’re finding is that it’s reducing emissions. Some of the oilfield companies are able to shut off some of their diesel or natural gas generators that they were using to produce energy and now they’re producing it in a greener way so they’re saving money, saving maintenance, they’re improving the environment,” said Hallett.
“It’s eligible for carbon credits, it’s eligible for microgeneration status, so it’s a huge opportunity that I’m really excited about.”
Having worked with compressor stations, pulp mills, a sawmill, a gas plant, larger remote off-grid energy sites, as well as on-grid energy sites, the versatility of The Power Stack is quickly becoming apparent. While 45 Innovations has kept very quiet about this product until the last two months, they have been busy in the background ensuring that the product is ready for launching.
Restricted to industrial applications for now, the technology is subject to the same regulations as wind turbines or solar panels said Hallett. The Power Stack creates minimal back pressure – about what you would expect on a breezy day she explained – and creates no real impact on the efficiency of the equipment it’s operating in conjunction with.
At the moment the generators are being build to order. With sizes ranging from 5 kilowatts to 1 megawatt of power, depending on the specific site variables, there is a product, or combination of products to suit most purposes.
Costs start at $75,000 (typically installed) and the return on investment is anticipated to be less than five years – a good bet for most companies. In early use, that time was often reported to be significantly less.
“I would love to see this technology everywhere. At the moment we’re just in Alberta but we do plan on servicing BC. BC has a slightly more complicated regulatory system than Alberta does so it’s taking a bit of research,” said Hallett.
Not content to stop with industry, Hallett would like to have a similar product available for institutional or home use within the next few years.
Until then, there is no question that the cumulative impact of wide use of a product such as this could benefit both the environment and the companies that are using it. For more information on this product, visit www.thepowerstack.com.

Highlights From The Pembina Institute’s In Situ Oil Sands Report Card.

About one-fifth of Alberta is available for an environmentally intense form of oil sands development known as in situ, or ‘in place’, extraction. The in situ process involves drilling several wells into the oil sands deposit, and then heating the oil sands underground using high-temperature steam so the bitumen can flow to a well and be pumped to the surface.

Mining is currently the predominant means of producing crude from Alberta’s oil sands, but in situ techniques could allow access to the 80 per cent of Alberta’s oil sands resources that are too deep to mine. Unfortunately, there is limited information about the environmental impacts and performance of in situ oil sands development.

Drilling Deeper provides a first-of-its-kind analysis of the environmental performance of in situ oil sands by comparing nine operational facilities from all three oil sands areas: Athabasca, Peace River and Cold Lake. The analysis follows the same report- card style methodology as Under-Mining the Environment, the Pembina Institute’s 2008 report that evaluated and compared the environmental performance of 10 existing and proposed oil sands mines.

In this new report, the Pembina Institute compared in situ projects on 17 environmental indicators grouped in five categories: general environmental management, land, air emissions, water and climate change.

In the first-ever assessment of environmental performance for deep oil sands development, Canadian in situ oil sands projects received marks ranging from 25 per cent to 60 per cent. Five of the nine projects surveyed scored less than 50 per cent, and the average score was only 44 per cent. These results demonstrate there is substantial room for improvement across the sector.

With the highest-ranked project scoring only 60 per cent and a nine-project average grade of 44 per cent, it is clear there is significant room to increase the environmental performance of in situ oil sands operations.

Many operations demonstrate leadership in some areas of project-specific environmental performance, and most companies have an environmental policy that commits to continuous improvement.

Primrose/Wolf Lake, Suncor Firebag, Suncor MacKay River, Cenovus Foster Creek and Imperial Oil Cold Lake were above average in overall environmental performance.

• Each project was a commercial-scale operation performing near expected technical performance.

• All four operations incorporate cogeneration into their facilities, reducing air and greenhouse emission intensities.

• The companies perform relatively well on environmental management.

Canadian Natural Primrose/Wolf Lake, Husky Tucker, Shell Peace River, JACOS Hangingstone and Cenovus Christina Lake all scored below the average environmental performance.

• Three of the projects were demonstration or pilot projects, which operate less efficiently and typically do not incorporate water recycling and sulphur recovery technologies.

• The other two projects were commercial facilities performing below their expected technical performance, resulting in increased emissions, water use and waste disposal rates.

Additionally, companies are lagging in the following key areas:

• Very few in situ operators have established absolute reduction targets for air emissions, water use and greenhouse gas emissions that go beyond regulated requirements. No project received full points on these indicators.

• Aside from a modest commitment from Suncor, no company invested in biodiversity offsets to compensate for the terrestrial impacts associated the development of its facility.

• Only two companies (Imperial Oil and Shell) have third-party accredited environmental management systems.

• Only three companies (Suncor, Cenovus and Shell) financially support the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute and its prov- ince-wide biodiversity monitoring program.

Want More Information?

For more information and a complete list of recommendations, download the full report, Drilling Deeper: The In Situ Oil Sands Report Card, from our website, www.oilsandswatch.org. You will also find photos, videos and other information and reports about the oil sands.

This report was prepared by Jeremy Moorhouse, Marc Huot and Simon Dyer of the Pembina Institute and used with their permission.

www.oilsandswatch.org

Click here to get in touch with the author of this post

Melding the best of both worlds, Dawson Creek has not only pulled off a one-of-a-kind environmental coup, but they’ve done it in conjunction with promoting industrial development.

The announcement of a proposed contract with Shell Canada that will see the issue of industrial water use addressed in a creative and innovative manner, once again puts Dawson Creek on the cutting edge of sustainable development.

“We have all the documentation to show that this will add 25 years to the life of our water supply at the present rate of growth and current usage – and that’s not even adding further reduction strategies,” said Mayor Mike Bernier.

In a region familiar with drought, dealing with water conservation is critical. The issue of ensuring an adequate water supply is raised during elections and makes it’s way into political consciousness annually as residents voice concerns about the amount of water industry is using. Growing communities, agriculture and industry compete for a finite resource across the Northeast.

A new effluent treatment facility funded by Shell, and due to break ground this summer, won’t be in time to deal with the projected water shortages for the coming season, however, sustainability is about long term planning Bernier reminds people.

This plan will ease the pinch and is projected to be operational as early as spring 2011, providing more available water, financial savings and added revenue to the City of Dawson Creek and its taxpayers.

“Our area is just continuing to boom and we’re continuing to need more water. Because of the amount of oil and gas activity in our area, almost 20 per cent of the water that goes through our treatment plant is sold in bulk out to the oil and gas industry for fraccing and their purposes,” said Bernier.

Not wanting to say no and inhibit industrial growth, city council discussed options and hit upon the idea to recycle their effluent water. There is one European location doing something similar but this is a North American first, said Bernier.

“We looked into it a little further and found out it was going to be about $10-million project to build another settling lagoon to treat the water to a WorkSafeBC standard and the City of Dawson Creek…didn’t have $10 million,” said Bernier.

Half a dozen companies responded to the city’s request for proposals, among them a proposal from Shell to cover all the costs with an anticipated $9.7 million for the necessary infrastructure. That proposal “exceeded our expectations”, said Bernier and after being accepted early April, negotiations to formalize the details began immediately.

As an added bonus, after claiming what they need for their own use, Shell will allow the city to sell whatever surplus is produced to other companies. With about 4,000 cubic metres of effluent discharged daily, that leaves the city in a position of generating revenues in the neighbourhood of $500,000 annually.

The treatment facility will provide the additional level of processing needed to improve safety from the level currently required for discharge back into the environment, to what’s needed for field use by industry.

This cooperative approach is, only a few days after the proposal was accepted, already generating interest from other municipalities, said Bernier.

“Industry uses a lot of water so we’re hoping that it’s something that will catch on. There’s probably lots of communities, lots of regions, out there that are in a similar situation that might be able to look at this as an idea that can help them out as well.”

Click here to get in touch with the author of this post