Canadian university goes green with North American first

The scheme, a first for North America according to the University of British Columbia, will also reduce its reliance on natural gas consumption by up to12% and cut up to 4,500 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year.

University of British Columbia

The $26m project will install a biomass gasification system at the university’s Vancouver campus tp operate in co-generation for electric power production and thermal mode to produce steam.

It will produce two megawatts of cost-effective clean electricity – up to 6% of the campus’s average electrical demand.

Announced this week by British Colombia’s premier Gordon Campbell and university president Stephen Toope, the Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Project is a partnership with Vancouver-based Nexterra Systems and GE Water and Power

“British Columbia has enormous clean energy potential and together with industry, we are putting it to work for our economy, generating new jobs and new wealth for our communities, while lowering greenhouse gas emissions within and beyond our borders,” said Mr Campbell

“This project demonstrates our leadership in sustainability and our concept of the campus as a living laboratory,” said Mr Toope: “This groundbreaking partnership is helping UBC achieve its sustainability goals through the convergence of research, operations and industry in the bioenergy sphere.”

Luke Walsh