The provincial government of Nova Scotia has instructed its primary electricity provider to increase its use of biomass, with the new directive starting immediately and continuing for the next two years. According to CBC News, the government, led by Tim Houston, has made a regulatory adjustment requiring Nova Scotia Power to generate 160 gigawatt hours of electricity from biomass annually through 2027.
This decision builds on previous regulations, which mandated the production of 135 gigawatt hours of biomass-based electricity each year until 2025. Energy Minister Trevor Boudreau explained that the increase is intended to ensure renewable energy is available on the grid as additional wind and solar projects are developed.
While earlier regulations required biomass to be sourced from forestry by products, this condition has now been removed. A spokesperson for Boudreau’s department clarified that it would not be economically viable for the forestry sector to harvest trees solely for biomass production. “Only sustainably harvested biomass can be used to help Nova Scotia Power meet this standard,” the spokesperson noted.
However, Ray Plourde of the Ecology Action Centre criticized the government’s approach, calling the change misleading. “There is nothing clean or green about burning forest biomass to produce electricity,” he stated in an interview.
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