Sault's trash-to-energy plan jeopardized by foot-dragging?

City Council is asking Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to intervene to ensure Elementa Group gets a green energy rate allowing its proposed trash-to-energy plant in Sault Ste. Marie to move forward.

A few years ago, the City entered into a contract to divert all its curbside waste to the proposed facility on Base Line by the beginning of this month.

But Elementa has not been able to get an offer of a rate per kilowatt hour from the Ontario Power Authority (OPA).

Without a contract from OPA, Elementa can't connect to the grid and sell electricity in Ontario.

It is, in effect, being prevented from conducting business in Ontario because OPA has not set a price for electricity from waste materials.

Len and Jayson Zweirschke, the brothers who pioneered Elementa and its unique gasification process, are from Ontario and want to develop their business here first.

OPA has set rates it will pay for electricity from wind, solar, landfill gas, waterpower, biogas and biomass, but not energy from waste.

"We were so disappointed when we found out we were not among the sources announced," said Elementa Group Executive Vice President Len Zweirschke.

Although land has been acquired and some preliminary site preparation has taken place on Base Line, the building has not been started and no trash has been diverted yet.

The company has moved forward with applications for certificates of approval from the Ontario Ministry of Environment and expects to secure the final certificates soon.

But until OPA gives Elementa a power rate, the company cannot start construction of its facility in Sault Ste. Marie.

And Elementa has served notice that it won't wait forever to bring its technology to the world, said Zweirschke.

It can't wait much longer because, if it does, it will miss the construction season in Sault Ste. Marie for another year.

Besides, Sault Ste. Marie is one of many places all over the world that are very interested in solving their trash problems and generating clean energy at the same time.

"The group we are working with in Spain has already picked out 30 sites for our technology," said Zweirschke. "They have a few sites they want to develop right away and then phase into the rest over time."

Spain, he said, is one of many countries very interested in the technology Elementa offers.

Because of its long and positive relationship with the city, Zweirschke said Elementa Group still wants Sault Ste. Marie to be the location for its full-scale, working pilot plant.

Elementa has had an operating demonstration plant at the City landfill for about five years and Zweirschke said the reason Elementa first set up shop here is the reason it plans to continue research and development here regardless of where it builds its pilot project.

That would be the support Elementa receives from City Council and the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation, Zweirschke said.

Elementa would be content with a power rate from OPA that's similar to that of small-scale biomass projects (13.8 cents per kilowatt hour) but believes it should receive a rate more comparable to a biogas project (14.7 cents per kilowatt hour) he said.

Wind (which gets 13.9 to 19 cents a kilowatt hour) and solar (getting 44.3 to 80.2 cents a kilowatt hour) use essentially free sources of power.

The Elementa process creates synthetic gas from trash and uses that to generate electricity.

This means added cost to generate the electricity.

But it also means reducing the amount of trash that goes into landfills by as much as 98 percent.

Zweirschke said the Elmenta process could turn trash into a resource instead of a problem in Ontario - if the OPA would give Elmenta a power rate.

Sault Ste. Marie City Council isn't the only municipality in Ontario to see the potential in the process either, he said.

Norfolk Mayor Dennis Travale has also sent letters of support for the company to Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid and Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudack.

Travale is lobbying for an Elementa processor proposed to be built alongside an extensive greenhouse operation.

It would provide heat for the greenhouses while relieving Norfolk of the cost of maintaining a landfill.

That project is also contingent on Elementa receiving a price rate and contract from the OPA.

Zweirschke said the plant in Norfolk may be developed simultaneously with the plant in Sault Ste. Marie but the Sault plant will not proceed until OPA offers Elementa a rate.

He added that the company plans to maintain and use its demonstration plant at the Sault landfill on Fifth Line for a good long time.

There will always be more developments and new ideas on how to refine or apply the process, and the existing Sault plant is a perfect format to try out those ideas before introducing them on a larger scale, Zweirschke said.

The recently announced addition of biomass to the process is an example of how the demonstration plant in the Sault will continue to be used.