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Pristine Power announced Thursday another agreement with a forests company in northern B.C. to build a second $40-million energy plant that would be fed by wood waste and logging roadside debris.
The agreement is with West Chilcotin Forest Products, 300 kilometres west of Williams Lake, a joint venture between the Ulkatcho First Nation and Prince George-based Carrier Lumber.
Last week, Pristine Power announced a similar agreement with Cheslatta Forest Products, south of Burns Lake.
Under the West Chilcotin proposal, the 10-megawatt power plant would use Vancouver-based Nexterra Energy's gasification technology, already in use at a Tolko plywood plant near Kamloops.
Pristine Power, a Calgary-based company, already announced this year it hopes to spend $500 million to build 15 power plants in the B.C. Interior that would utilize wood waste from sawmills and beetle-killed wood.
B.C. Hydro has put out a proposal call for using wood waste to produce electricity, but Pristine Power official Fed Scott said they are trying to get the public utility to issue a one-off call for this project. They have made a similar call with the Cheslatta proposal.
Agreements with B.C. Hydro are needed before the projects could proceed.
Scott noted that a tremendous amount of waste is being burned in the West Chilcotin area, one of the areas hardest hit by the pine beetle epidemic. During a recent visit, there was a waste pile burning with an estimated 600 tonnes of debris, he said.
Pristine estimate the power plants need to be fed by about 60,000 tonnes of wood waste, equivalent to about 1,300 logging truck loads of wood. Scott noted that the West Chilcotin sawmill could potentially produce 55,000 tonnes of wood waste for the plant.
The sawmill would use about 3.5 megawatts of power, while the communities of Anahim and Nimpo Lakes would receive about two megawatts. The remainder would be sold to B.C. Hydro. The project would eliminate the reliance on diesel-generated power and eliminate two beehive burners. The reduction of greenhouse gases is estimated at 10,000 tonnes per year.
"Given the fact we are surrounded by dead trees that are ready to fall over, this is an extremely positive step within our traditional territory," said Ulkatcho First Nation chief Lynda Price. | 
