CCEMC Approves 6 New Projects in Area of Energy Efficiency

We attended a press conference today given by the Climate Change Emissions Management (CCEMC) Corporation. The CCEMC Chair, Eric Newell, announced more than $27.2 million in CCEMC funding for six new industrial energy efficiency projects.

Collectively the projects are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.2 megatonnes over the next ten years. In more concrete terms, this reduction is comparable to removing 64,000 cars off the road every year for ten years.

The funding provided by CCEMC is leveraged with investment from industry itself. For every dollar invested by the CCEMC in an industrial efficiency project, another $4.93, on average, is invested by industry. This means that the funding announced today for energy efficiency represents a combined total investment of more than $161.4 million.

The organizations receiving the funding are:

• NRGreen Power Limited is receiving $7 million for the Whitecourt Energy Efficiency Project, which will use industrial waste heat to generate electricity.
• ConocoPhillips Canada will receive $7 million for the installation of new energy efficient technologies at approximately 400 of their facilities.
• Weyerhaeuser Company Limited's Grande Prairie Evaporator Project, which will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions at its Grande Prairie pulpmill while also generating 23 megawatts of green power for export to the Alberta power grid, is receiving $5 million from the CCEMC.
• Cenovus Energy is receiving $3.6 million for the installation of air/fuel ratio controllers and vent capture systems at 37 gas compression facilities in Alberta. Combined, the technologies are expected to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by almost 20,000 tonnes per year.
• Encana Corporation will receive $2.4 million in funding for the installation of vent gas capture units on 52 natural gas compressors, which redirect captured methane into the compressors' air intake to help fuel the compressors. The project will reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by approximately 61,000 tonnes each year.
• Quantiam Technologies Inc. will receive $2.225 million from CCEMC to advance and test technology aimed at reducing emissions and improving efficiency in the manufacture of olefins using ethane feedstock.

The six projects announced today represent the second round of CCEMC's funding, and bring the total number of projects supported by the organization to 22. The projects are at different stages of innovation and carry a total planned investment from CCEMC of more than $98.2 million.

CCEMC's third call for proposals was issued in September of 2010, with 13 applicants being invited to submit full project proposals. Approval for this group of projects is expected by June 2011.

Each project funded by CCEMC provides the benefits of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and increased energy efficiency. However, in every case CCEMC hopes that the technologies being developed and implemented will be used in other projects and other industries and, ultimately, result in benefits to Alberta and Canada which are far beyond the initial investment of CCEMC.

Jennifer Cleall and Chris Jones, Student-at-Law