A joint-venture partnership has been formed in northern B.C. to invest in a clean energy project.
Fort St. James has a 40-megawatt biomass power generation facility which began operating in 2017. However, the facility stopped operating in June where almost 40 people lost their jobs, as per a Oct. 6 news release.
This partnership between Nak’azdli Whut’en Development Corporation, the Arrow Group of Companies, and Nexus PMG is to purchase and operate that biomass power generation facility under the name BioNorth Energy Ltd., as per the release.
BioNorth Energy Ltd. will begin generating power at the facility early next year.
This investment includes the land that the energy plant currently sits on. BioNorth Energy will also acquire and own all land, buildings and structures on five parcels of land surrounding the energy plant. These lands are currently owned by the KDL group and were leased in the past to operators, said the release.
Additionally BioNorth Energy has found clean water to use at the biomass facility to deal with prior water and waste challenges. In the past, water for the facility came from shallow wells and had high metal, mineral and organic content, which caused problems for treating process water on-site, as stated in the news release.
Instead of using shallow wells, BioNorth Energy has found an alternative deep well to supply the facility with clean water. “All efforts are being made to recycle the water within the plant so there will be minimal effluent water.”
“For NDC and Nak’azdli Whut’en, partnership in the FGE [Fort St. James Green Energy] project is a way for us to challenge the future and build on our communities’ history of working with industry. This is why our participation in the FGE project received the support and approval of Chief and Council and the NDC Board of Director. We will be providing a high-level overview of this partnership to community members in the near future,” the release said.
Nak’azdli Whut’en owns 40 percent stake in BioNorth Energy, Arrow owns 40 percent, and Nexus owns 20-percent, and will be governed by a Board of Directors that consists of 2 Nak’azdli Whut’enne, 2 Arrow employees and 1 Nexus employee.
Aman Parhar
Editor - Vanderhoof Omineca Express, Caledonia Courier
aman.parhar@ominecaexpress.com
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