Biomass for residential and commercial heating in a remote Canadian aboriginal community

Abstract

a b s t r a c tMost residents of Canada's 300 remote communities do not have access to natural gas and must rely upon higher cost and/or less convenient heat sources such as electric heat, heating (furnace) oil, propane, and/or cord wood. This research sought to determine the techno-economic feasibility of increasing biomass utilization for space and hot water heating in remote, off-grid communities in Canada and abroad using a two-option case study approach: 1) a district energy system (DES) connected to a centralized heat generation energy centre fuelled by wood chips; and 2) a decentralized heating option with wood pellet boilers in each individual residence and commercial building. The Nuxalk First Nation Bella Coola community was selected as a case study, with GIS, ground surveys, and climate data used to design DES routes and determine heat demand. It was determined that biomass has the potential to reduce heat costs, reduce the cost of electricity subsidization for electrical utilities, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase energy independence of remote communities. Although results of the analysis are site-specific, the research methodology and general findings on heat-source economic competitiveness could be utilized to support increased bioheat production in remote, off-grid communities for improved socio-economic and environmental outcomes.

A Systems Analysis of the Development Status and Trends of Rural Household Energy in China

“…(1) What's the actual situation and complete picture of the current energy systems? (2) What are the prioritized technology choices to improve the energy systems? (3) How can we realize and accelerate technology innovation based on market mechanisms?…”

“…Energy poverty is still a worldwide issue, affecting 3 billion people who rely heavily on traditional fuels to meet their energy needs [1], especially in rural areas [2][3][4][5]. For rural energy [6,7], rural household energy is of great importance, since it is directly relevant to quality of life [8].…”

Reviewing energy system modelling of decentralized energy autonomy

“…This country classification is based on the gross national income per capita [387]. [51,92,136], Cameroon [96,127], Egypt [114], Ghana [27,29], India [30,34,[46][47][48]59,60,73,74,78,82,88,94,102,107,108,110,115,116,131,133], Indonesia [33,121], Nigeria [28,137,139], Pakistan [72,76,111] [41,58], Austria [118], Canada [39,40,106,123,145], Croatia [52,80,117], Denmark [53,...…”

“…Therefore, a particularly critical assessment is made when off-grid energy systems are designed on the basis of an annual energy balance, as it seems in Stephen et al [123]. Stephen et al [123] investigate the residential and commercial energy supply for an off-grid Canadian aboriginal community. There are also other examples with a very rough time resolution, but these studies only consider balanced autonomy:…”

Evaluating the Impacts of Supply and Demand-Side Interventions in Northern Remote and Rural Community Energy Systems

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