Monday, February 21, 2011

By Chris Hayes

Ken Magnus, the East Bay-based executive director, says the new Atlantic Council for Bioenergy Cooperative Ltd. will promote the development of a sustainable bioenergy industry in the region.

Founding members include representatives of Co-op Atlantic, the Centre of Excellence in Agricultural and Biotechnical Sciences at the New Brunswick Community College and Atlantec Bioenergy Corporation, which produces ethanol from energy beets in Milford, N.S.

Magnus says ACBC will represent businesses and entrepreneurs who are already working or plan to get involved in the biofuels, biomass and biogas energy fields. Considering the small number of bioenergy businesses in all of Canada right now, he doesn’t expect the Atlantic Canada organization to include a large number of members.

“We are just getting started,” he said Wednesday. “Our intention is to end up with a relatively small group of serious industry participants or stakeholders or proponents. This group would then spend time on a very hands-on type of membership basis where we get together on a regular basis and communicate ... on what the industry wants to do in Atlantic Canada as far as further development in the weeks, months and years ahead.”

Magnus said he has spoken to two or three people in Cape Breton who are interested in biomass and biofuels but he can’t name names since they are not yet ACBC members.

“I have been travelling all over the three Maritime provinces in the last few months so it’s hard to get to everybody at once, but as you do this, you discover there is a lot of very interested and aggressive large-scale enterprises that are involved in this, and some of them are in Cape Breton. I just can’t tell who they are.”

First and foremost, ACBC will focus on speaking with as many stakeholders as possible to attract new members and put the association in a strong position to lead what is an evolving industry for Atlantic Canada, according to a release.

It will work with all the federal, provincial, municipal and First Nations governments, existing national biofuels and bioenergy industry associations, research facilities and educational institutions, keeping members informed of new technologies and developments, the release says.

“There are certainly options to produce energy from biogas, biomass or biofuels for anybody that wants to take an entrepreneurial look at it and give it a go,” Magnus said.

“It’s not small business. It’s an energy supply business so it is fairly large scale, so it takes considerable commitment and investment to do all that.”

Magnus said a co-op of farmers or a trucking company who wanted to produce biofuel for their own use may also be a viable startup.

He encouraged people interested in bioenergy to contact him at 902-822-1170, 577-6354, by email at kenmagnus@bellaliant.net and to check out the website, www.atlanticbioenergy.com.

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