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Bioenergy plant will help heat college, shrink school's carbon footprint

Confederation College is turning to Northwestern Ontario’s forest to heat two of its most populated buildings. And they’re using $1 million of Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation cash to help pay for the $5.
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Confederation College president Pat Lang showcases artist renderings of what the school's new bioenergy plant will look like. The $5.2 million facility will save the school more than $300,000 a year in energy costs. (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
Confederation College is turning to Northwestern Ontario’s forest to heat two of its most populated buildings.

And they’re using $1 million of Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation cash to help pay for the $5.2-million project, which a college official said should pay for itself in less than 11 years.

Brian Campbell, the school’s executive director of government relations, said the bioenergy plant will reduce the college’s carbon footprint, but will also combine a learning component for more than 200 students a year to learn about green energy.

“We’re putting in a wood-fueled biomass burner, which will burn wood so cleanly that there will be no effluent and will heat hot water. The hot water will be piped through this building,” Campbell said, noting the significant portion of the expense will be to retrofit the Shuniah building and wean it off forced-air gas and electric power.

The system, which will save the college in excess of $300,000 a year, will also be used to heat the new REACH facility.

The ripple effect could possibly be felt throughout Northern Ontario, Campbell said.

“Our students will learn how to operate these plants and perhaps carry the work out into the working world to business and perhaps to remote, northern communities, Native communities that would like to get off of diesel generation, perhaps.

“This is a heat-only plant at this point. We’d also like to get some small-scale electrical generation to create a model around sustainable electrical generation,” Campbell said.

A total of six jobs also come with the project, expected to begin as soon as half-load restrictions on the region’s roads are lifted, allowing the concrete trucks to deliver the main building component.

MPP Bill Mauro (Lib., Thunder Bay-Atikokan), said it’s a great idea for a number of reasons.

“It’s a green-energy project. It creates six new permanent jobs, 50 construction jobs. It’s going to help (the college) with their long-term energy costs (too),” he said.
 




Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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