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- Sep 25, 2007
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Hi all,
An article from the June edition of Alberta Venture magazine. Excerpts:
With a plan bordering on economic alchemy, Thane Hurlburt will not only generate revenue from refuse but help solidify southern Alberta`s status as a hub for the alternative energy industry.
This summer, construction is set to begin in the Rave Industrial Park in the County of Lethbridge, just east of town, on ECB`s first biogas plant. By 2010, microbes in the facility`s oxygen-free digesters will turn meat and vegetable scraps, lawn clippings and livestock manure into methane gas to fuel the generation of enough electricity to power 3,000 homes – making this one of Canada`s biggest privately owned projects of its kind.
But here in southern Alberta, seeding the biogas industry with a facility as big as ECB`s could have a more fundamental impact on the region`s economic outlook. For one thing, it could solve a long-standing problem with agri-food waste management. For another, the plant would solidify southern Alberta`s growing reputation as a future-friendly, energy-based economic zone.
This kind of activity, especially when coupled with ECB`s success to date, should help SAAEP galvanize its reputation as a leader in the burgeoning renewable energy sector, as well as add to the economic diversification of a region that, far removed from the epicentre of the last boom, has always had to carve out its own niche. When coal gave way to oil as Alberta`s main energy crop, Lethbridge, with origins as a mining town, reinvented itself as a manufacturing, education and agricultural service centre.
"We don`t have oilsands," says Robert Tarleck, mayor of Lethbridge. "We`re not in the heart of oil country, but we have natural resources you need for alternative energy. We have lots of wind and sun. We have opportunities for geothermal energy and biofuels."
Delving into the alternative energy industry is just another example of the region`s ability to adapt. It`s also an attitude and approach to development that Tarleck thinks the rest of Alberta could learn from. "We need to take a longer view of our future, something Lethbridge has been doing for decades," he says.
But to do that, you need to think bigger, even if that involves something the unimaginative might simply dismiss as "waste."
For Hurlburt and ECB, the Lethbridge plant is only the beginning. He envisions the landscape of southern Alberta – and, for that matter, that of the nation – one day dotted with biogas plants, just like Germany. "We`re only using 50,000 tonnes a year," says Hurlburt of his future plant. "Estimates for manure produced in the County of Lethbridge are between six and 13 million tonnes per year."
http://www.albertaventure.com/?p=3319&year=2009
Keith
An article from the June edition of Alberta Venture magazine. Excerpts:
With a plan bordering on economic alchemy, Thane Hurlburt will not only generate revenue from refuse but help solidify southern Alberta`s status as a hub for the alternative energy industry.
This summer, construction is set to begin in the Rave Industrial Park in the County of Lethbridge, just east of town, on ECB`s first biogas plant. By 2010, microbes in the facility`s oxygen-free digesters will turn meat and vegetable scraps, lawn clippings and livestock manure into methane gas to fuel the generation of enough electricity to power 3,000 homes – making this one of Canada`s biggest privately owned projects of its kind.
But here in southern Alberta, seeding the biogas industry with a facility as big as ECB`s could have a more fundamental impact on the region`s economic outlook. For one thing, it could solve a long-standing problem with agri-food waste management. For another, the plant would solidify southern Alberta`s growing reputation as a future-friendly, energy-based economic zone.
This kind of activity, especially when coupled with ECB`s success to date, should help SAAEP galvanize its reputation as a leader in the burgeoning renewable energy sector, as well as add to the economic diversification of a region that, far removed from the epicentre of the last boom, has always had to carve out its own niche. When coal gave way to oil as Alberta`s main energy crop, Lethbridge, with origins as a mining town, reinvented itself as a manufacturing, education and agricultural service centre.
"We don`t have oilsands," says Robert Tarleck, mayor of Lethbridge. "We`re not in the heart of oil country, but we have natural resources you need for alternative energy. We have lots of wind and sun. We have opportunities for geothermal energy and biofuels."
Delving into the alternative energy industry is just another example of the region`s ability to adapt. It`s also an attitude and approach to development that Tarleck thinks the rest of Alberta could learn from. "We need to take a longer view of our future, something Lethbridge has been doing for decades," he says.
But to do that, you need to think bigger, even if that involves something the unimaginative might simply dismiss as "waste."
For Hurlburt and ECB, the Lethbridge plant is only the beginning. He envisions the landscape of southern Alberta – and, for that matter, that of the nation – one day dotted with biogas plants, just like Germany. "We`re only using 50,000 tonnes a year," says Hurlburt of his future plant. "Estimates for manure produced in the County of Lethbridge are between six and 13 million tonnes per year."
http://www.albertaventure.com/?p=3319&year=2009
Keith