About 70 jobs will be created in the region from the contracts awarded to produce biomass wood pellets to fuel the Atikokan Generatiing Station.
Ontario Power Generation announced on Thursday it awarded contracts to both Atikokan Renewable Fuels and Resolute Forest Products for 45,000 tonnes of the biomass wood pellets each.
Resolute will be investing $10 million into building a wood pellet plant next to their Thunder Bay sawmill. The plant will employ 24 people when fully operational.
Atikokan Renewable Fuels will employ 45 people and president Ed Fukushima said he’s been waiting two years for this announcement, but he’s happy to finally get the 10-year contract from OPG.
“It’s been an important piece in getting our plant financing in place so we can start constructing it and get on with other contracts we’re negotiating,” he said Friday.
Fukushima said without a contract, they couldn’t get financing for construction and they have spent a lot of money on maintaining the empty building, paying for things like heat and gas.
Construction on the pellet plant is expected to begin within 45 days and he anticipates the project to take about six months. OPG has stated they need to be up and running by Jan. 1, 2014.
And while Fukushima was hoping for more than 45,000 tonnes, he said this baseline load will allow them to shop their service to other companies.
“We are in negotiations right now with other large utilities. We expect to have contracts in place by the end of the year for our full production capacity,” he said.
OPG also issued a Request for Indicative Pricing for the transportation of the wood pellets to the Atikokan Generating Station.
