Grande Prairie Co-Gen Plant

Open burners used to incinerate wood waste in Grande Prairie, spewing ash into the air. Now this wood waste - a renewable green power source - is used to produce heat and electricity.

Waste wood from two Canfor Corporation sawmills fuel a co-generation plant built by Canadian Gar & Electric at the Grande Prairie mill. Climate Change Central helped fund a study to evaluate the potential of using excess steam energy to heat nearby buildings. Recovering waste heat will cut fuel consumption for heating adjacent buildings and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 10,000 tonnes a year. As well, ash particulates will drop from 1,500 to 300 kilograms a day. Grande Prairie and nearby Town of Sexsmith created a regional utility, Aquatera, to develop the hot water heating system.