Armstrong Woodwaste Cogeneration Plant
Forestry in B.C. creates valuable products for customers around the world. In the process of creating these products however, the unused woodwaste has become almost as valuable as a potential source of energy.
Riverside Forest Products Limited, one of BC Hydro's major industrial customers, is harnessing the power of wood waste, using it to create steam to produce electricity at its Armstrong plant. An initiative that began as an idea primarily for cost-effective on-site generation in 2001, quickly grew into a revenue opportunity for Riverside through BC Hydro's call for green customer-based generation in 2003.
The 20 MW Armstrong cogeneration plant began feeding power into the BC Hydro grid on July 1, 2003, with an agreement to provide approximately 120 GWh of power per year, enough to power about 15,000 homes.
"Through this electricity purchase agreement we can provide BC Hydro's customers with clean electricity provincially, but we can also have a positive environmental impact locally," says Michael Moore, Chief Financial Officer at Riverside. "We have also been able to de-commission our Lumby beehive burner in 2002 which contributed to the reduction of greenhouse gas and diverted wood residue from that facility to Armstrong as fuel for cogeneration."
Last Modified: May 9, 2009
