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CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. —

Energy Minister Steven Myers is aiming to help communities in P.E.I. generate their own heat and electricity.

In a statement made before the legislature on Nov. 14, Myers said his department is in the early stages of what he calls the sustainable communities initiative.

The idea is to help municipal governments develop biomass heating and wind and solar energy infrastructure which could provide for local needs. Excess energy could also generate income for these municipalities.

"We're giving that whole ability back to communities to create their own energy and heat needs," Myers said in an interview this past Friday.

The initiative would be based on the example of the Island of Samsø in Denmark. Between 1998 and 2008, the Island of 4,000 went from being dependent on outside oil to being self-sufficient. The Island generates enough electricity for its inhabitants via wind and provides for its own heating needs via local district heating systems. The heating systems use biomass boilers fuelled with locally-produced straw or waste wood.

Myers is hoping that emulating the Samsø example would also help P.E.I. reach its emission reduction target of 40 per cent by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

Myers, along with Green and Liberal MLAs Lynne Lund and Robert Henderson, visited Samsø earlier in the fall. Myers said he has been working with Lund and Henderson on the initiative.

“Rather than having a whole bunch of communities create their own energy corporations, I think it would be more concise and easier for small communities if the energy corporations were the leaders." - Energy Minister Steven Myers

But, it is unclear how costly the initiative would be, or even how much it could help the Island reduce emissions. Aside from the statement from Myers on Nov. 14, the province has issued no other announcement about the project.

When asked about a budget, timeline or targets for this initiative, Myers said he would get back to The Guardian with further details.

When asked if this process would entail establishing municipal energy utilities, such as Summerside Electric, Myers said he was unsure. He suggested Efficiency P.E.I. could serve as a co-ordinator of power generation.

“Rather than having a whole bunch of communities create their own energy corporations, I think it would be more concise and easier for small communities if the energy corporations were the leaders," Myers said.

He said the province would issue an open call for projects early in the new year.

The focus on biomass is similar to the approach seen by the previous Liberal government. This year’s PC capital budget allocated $6.6 million to install biomass heating units in 20 government-owned buildings. The previous Liberal government had also made similar investments. Currently, 33 government-owned buildings are heated through biomass.

But the emphasis on biomass also comes with challenges.

During Friday’s question period, Green party energy critic Stephen Howard questioned how helpful biomass heating is in reducing carbon emissions.

“When we burn biomass for energy, we initially and immediately emit greenhouse gases, more than burning coal per unit of energy,” Howard told the legislature.

“We then draw the carbon back out of the atmosphere as trees or other crops grow back. But the time to get those greenhouse gases back out of the atmosphere can often be decades.”

Howard said P.E.I.’s emissions needed to be reduced more quickly. He said he supported biomass but suggested better data was needed about the sourcing and emissions from the process.

Myers said the province is planning a corporate land use inventory and that biomass stock is currently coming from a P.E.I.-owned tree nursery.



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