P.E.I. is expanding its move into biomass heating in a bid to reduce the province's reliance on oil imports, but some critics say it's not as green as it appears.

The province awarded contracts earlier this month to convert five public buildings to biomass, which sees wood chips or straw burned instead of oil.

Dick Arseneault, owner of Atlantic Bioheat, says furnaces like the one his company already has set up at Westisle Composite High School in Elmdale greatly reduces reliance on oil, with the backup oil heater only needed on the coldest days.

"We're looking at, the buildings I have, almost half a million litres of oil after this should be replaced by biomass instead of bringing fossil fuel in," Arseneault said.

Biomass heat spreading in P.E.I.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2010/10/22/pe-biomas...

I like the idea in principle, but I agree with Gary, that we shouldn't use our forests to bear the brunt of this move to biomass. If this can be done on a sustainable basis, I am all for it. However, a review of the province's Climate Change document's which refer to biomass, the province itself admits that it is not sure if this can be done sustainably. Indicating that it may know that it is not sustainable, they suggest that cereal crops be added to the biomass mixture, to ensure supply. The increased use of our forests as biomass, may cause an upward price on fuelwood for homeowners. Finally, a careful reading of the CBC article indicates that the province will buy the heat generated from the biomass plants at a slightly lower price than oil, so where is the savings in that ?

Whether or not the long term harvest of wood is sustainable remains unclear. Sustainable harvest is certainly possible, however, projected wood supply availability under various biomass scenarios remains largely a function of scale. Agricultural by-products such as straw and unused hay could also be developed as fuel sources. Again, it is unclear whether it is economically sustainable to produce these fuels, if the principle markets, namely cereal crops and forages, should disappear.

Prince Edward Island and Climate Change
A Strategy for Reducing the Impacts of Global Warming
http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/env_globalstr.pdf