NSP going ahead with biomass

Nova Scotia biomass project leverages wood waste for renewable energy at Port Hawkesbury, promising forestry jobs and 3% power, while sparking debate on clear-cutting, sustainability, UARB oversight, shareholder costs, and environmental impact for 50,000 homes.

Nova Scotia Power NSP and the NewPage paper company in Port Hawkesbury announced that they are going ahead with their plan to generate electricity by burning wood.

The biomass project was approved last month by the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, and the plant is expected to be up and running by early 2013.

The $208 million project is expected to create about 150 new jobs in northern Nova Scotia, primarily in the forestry sector.

NSP said it plans to increase biomass use as it burns wood waste - things such as bark, chips, and scrub logs - at the plant in Port Hawkesbury.

Newpage said the project will, through its NewPage partnership on a Canadian plant, make the company a model of sustainability.

But Raymond Plourde, wilderness coordinator with the Ecology Action Centre, said the plan will lead to more clear-cutting.

"There's going to be a focus on hardwoods where the focus has traditionally been on soft woods," Plourde said. "If you drive around the Cabot Trail, and places like that, and look up at those beautiful hardwood hills, well, that's now fuel."

Natural Resources Minister John McDonell, noting that the debate has split stakeholders across the province, disagrees.

"To just purely associate the fact that you're going to cut more trees, and that would mean that it's going to be clearcutting, is not necessarily a reasonable association," he said.

The Ecology Action Centre wants the government to halt the deal, citing calls to reduce biomass use in electricity generation, or at the very least monitor the Newpage project before it allows more companies to clearcut in the province.

The government said it will have more to say about limits on clearcutting soon.

The UARB said NSP can proceed with its 40-year plan, but any cost overruns during the construction phase must be borne by the utility's shareholders, not by ratepayers.

The project could produce about three per cent of the province's total electricity, aligning with calls for independent electricity planning across Canada, or enough to supply 50,000 homes.

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