CanBio conference advances the bioenergy agenda

05/04/2012

Notice from CanBio

All,

Thank you so much for participating in the CanBio Conference "Advancing the Bioeconomy - Biomass in a Canadian Energy Strategy" last week in Edmonton, which brought together over 150 stakeholders to learn and assess how to move forward. To summarize a few take away messages:

Alberta  is a leader in both fossil energy AND in the advancement  of bioenergy and bio-products

Many  barriers to bioenergy development remain including;

Low  natural gas prices, hindering bioenergy economics

Availability  of investment dollars

Steam  engineer regulations and ASME certification requirement

Requirement  to sell power into the grid, which is often costly and difficult

Proper  policy framework and pricing on energy/carbon

Many  organizations in Canada are actively involved in developing an energy  strategy, including the Energy Policy Institute, Council of Canadians,  and the Canada West Foundation
 
Energy  literacy is wanting. Many do not know where their energy comes from,  or its implications

There  are new transportable biomass products, such as torrefied wood and pyrolysis  oil, and burgeoning markets to buy them, such as Korea, China and the  UK

Bioenergy  clearly has superior job performance over other renewable energy sources

Partnerships  will result in the win-win situation we seek in the bio-economy

So what does CanBio plan to do about it?   We can't change the price of natural gas, but we can encourage off-grid northern communities to convert from diesel to biomass, and we will bring knowhow to them by way of our domestic conferences and offshore technology missions. We will increase investment availability through our upcoming financing partnership missions to London, Xiamen and Singapore. We are now planning to bring the right people to the table this October to sweep away obsolete steam engineer regulations and allow EU certified equipment to be used in Canada. We will expand our bioenergy survey to include all sectors and convey to government the true benefits of bioenergy and at the local level.  

We cannot do this alone. We need your support. If you are not already a member, we ask that you join CanBio. It does not cost much, but and yields considerable benefits. Memberships start at $250 for Individual, $500 Professional, $1000 Municipal, $1500 Corporate Silver, $3500 Corporate Gold, and $7500 Corporate Platinum. Joining takes only 4 minutes via PayPal on the CanBio website at www.canbio.ca or by submitting the attached registration form.

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Noam Sugarman
Canadian Bioenergy Association
tel: (705) 472-2280  fax: (705) 472-2290
www.canbio.ca <http://www.canbio.ca>