The current feed-in tariff (FIT) contract and environmental regulations in Ontario tend to favour small projects or big projects. The middle isn’t very big. The standard power price from the 501 kilowatt to 10 megawatt range (14 ¢/kWh) makes it essentially mandatory for the developer to make it as big as he can, to take advantage of the economies of scale.
At the same time, creating this much energy requires a lot of feedstock to be collected – feedstock that is currently classified as waste and taken to landfills or composting facilities (who already have environmental approvals). To my knowledge there has not yet been a new biogas plant approved by the Ministry of Environment that would accept feedstocks like curbside organics, and food processing waste. (Except for at the City of Toronto, who’s doing some interesting things with biogas at its Dufferin Transfer Station, and working on injecting the gas into the Enbridge pipelines to offset garbage truck fuel consumption).
All of Ontario’s 40 or so biogas plants to date are farm based or waste-water treatment facilities, the big ones are in the planning and development stages – waiting for environmental approval.
Which I guess brings me to my point
The biogas industry could probably grow faster if we focus on the small. 500 kilowatt or 250 kW projects look like the best option right now if you’d like to pursue a FIT contract with the Ontario Power Authority. We could probably do at least 500 of those projects.
But, maybe that isn’t the best option.
The gas could be cleaned up and fed into the gas grid, and sold to Union Gas, Enbridge or Bullfrog Power – which of course has different costs associated with it and seemingly much less red tape. If this route turns out to be more attractive, a great many of Ontario 4,000+ dairy producers could put a biogas plant on their land and earn money selling the gas, or even just offsetting their own natural gas usage if the cost to clean the gas is too high.
In the end
It’s possible that over 2,000 micro-scale biogas projects could come online, producing enough gas to heat and power a small dairy operation and the farm house. The profits are in the savings, improved nutrient value of the manure, and possibly in the carbon credits (which the farmer would own, instead of the OPA).
Small is beautiful after all.
photo credit: publicenergy
