Promoting Green Power in Canada - Centre for Human Settlements

Promoting Green Power in Canada Pollution ProbePossible electricity production fromwood residues:5.4 million tons/year – 30% = 3.8 milliontons (available biomass)Energy content: 10.4 GJ/ton (wood chips)10.4 GJ/ton x 35% = 3.64 GJ/ton convertedinto electricity1 GJ is the same as 0.28 MWh à 3.64 GJ/tonyield 1.02 MWh/ton1.02 MWh/ton x 3.8 million tons = 3.9 TWh,or 0.6% of Canada’s annual electricityconsumption (600 TWh)AGRICULTURAL WASTEAn assessment of the potential for energyproduction from agricultural wastes in EasternCanada has been completed by the (REAP)in July 2002 [REAP 2002b]. Table C-2summarises the information in this reportand adds additional data extrapolated fromOntario to the Western Provinces, based oncrop production and livestock statistics. TheREAP report assumes bio-ethanolproduction from crop residues and on-farmelectricity production from manuregasification; for this estimate it has beenassumed that crop residues would be entirelyused for electricity production. Crop residuescan have far higher ash contents than woodresidues (10% vs. 1%), which can negativelyaffect its use as fuel. Therefore, a conversionfactor of only 25% is assumed here. Basedon Statistics Canada data, manure potentialswere extrapolated following potentialsdetermined for Ontario (Table C2).The total for Canada results in 32 TWh. Thisis an even larger amount than the potentialsfor biomass from forest residues and energycrops, and amounts to 5.3% of Canada’scurrent electricity consumption. According tothe World Energy Council, Canada has 45million tons of crop residues available peryear [WEC 2001]. At an energy content ofabout 18 GJ/t, this would result in a grossenergy generation of 225,000 GWh, or over56,000 GWh at an energy conversion factorof 25%. This is roughly twice as much as theabove estimate of 30,000 GWh in Table C3,which can therefore be taken as a lowestimate.194