Ontario Power Authority Takes Initiatives for Burning more Biomass Instead of Coal

OPA (Ontario Power Authority) is taking initiatives for burning more biomass. As part of the organization’s efforts in phasing out all the coal plants in Canada’s Ontario province by the year 2014, the OPA has been working along with the power-plant owners for closing down facilities or towards transitioning them into burning biomass.

One such facility is the 211-MW capacity Atikokan Generating Station that would be the first plant for shifting entirely to biomass. The Ontario government has directed the OPA towards drafting a PPA (power purchase agreement) with the owner of the plant, Ontario Power Generation.

Ontario Power Generation is also the owner of three more coal plants in Ontario while wanting to convert all these three plants into biomass burners by 2014. The Ontario government has set out an ambitious target of phasing out all the coal plants within five years under the Green Energy Act.