Ontario's coal-fired power plants and cement-manufacturing plants could soon be burning biomass crops grown by farmers.
Speaking at the Growing the Margins green energy conference Wednesday in London, Robert Lyng of Ontario Power Generation (OPG) said a study on the feasibility of switching to biomass in generating plants will be released next year.
Ontario's Liberal government had vowed to shut down the plants -- among the province's dirtiest polluters -- by now, but has extended their lifetime to 2014 when they'll have to stop burning coal.
Lyng said two plants in northern Ontario could switch to burning wood pellets. But the largest plants -- Lambton, near Sarnia, and the Nanticoke plant, could burn a combination of biomass and natural gas.
Lyng said burning biomass reduces carbon dioxide emissions 90% and would allow the plants to keep operating.
He said OPG could contract with farmers to provide hundreds of thousands of tonnes of biomass, from specialized energy crops such as switchgrass.
Martin Warmelink of Lafarge Cement said the company hopes to produce "green cement" by experimenting with burning bales of crops such as hemp, sorghum and non-food corn as a fuel source for a cement plant near Kingston.
Both Lyng and Warmelink said it will be a challenge to come up with a business model that competes with coal.
"Coal is really cheap. But when you compare biomass with other forms of alternative energy, it's no too bad," said Lyng.
He said biomass also produces less energy than coal, so it may be necessary to supplement it with natural gas at the generating plants.
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