Better Farming - August 2016

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Better Farming August 2016 Farm News First > 13
MAIN FEATURE
by MARY BAXTER
Korb Whale’s first encounter
with the principle of anaero-
bic digestion left him so
impressed, he vowed that if he
decided to farm and had the financial
resources he would add a digester.
The encounter came while he was
studying civil engineering in the
1990s.
Fast forward to 2003. By then
Whale had returned to the family
dairy farm 40 minutes north of
Guelph that he shares today with his
wife, Kelly, and parents, Bruce and
Deborah. He hadn’t forgotten his
pledge. Every opportunity he had, he
researched the technology that uses
microorganisms in an oxygen-free
environment to create biogas such as
methane and carbon dioxide out of
organic materials.
Whale’s primary interest was in
developing renewable natural gas to
supply the local natural gas company,
Union Gas, through a nearby
connection. But when he began
developing his anaerobic digester in
earnest in 2010, what sounded like a
significant business opportunity in
principle didn’t pan out in practice.
With little incentive to accept the
renewable gas into its grid, Union
Gas only offered the spot prices it
used in Alberta.
Whale had tried hard to interest
the company in the idea. “We
entertained Union Gas and we
brought them with us on tour to
California to see the technology, and
we talked to PG&E (Pacific Gas and
Electric Company), the power
company down there who was buying
green natural gas at the time and
who were quite happy with the
results,” he says. “It was brand new
for Union Gas, so we wanted to give
them some comfort in realizing this
was good quality gas that they could
count on.”
That same year saw the debut of
the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program that
offered long-term energy generation
contracts in streams geared to large
and small-scale projects, and so,
instead, Whale successfully obtained
a contract to generate electrical
power with his digester.
While Whale had to abandon the
idea of supplying renewables to the
province’s natural gas grid, the
concept returned to Ontario in full
force this spring with provincial
government announcements of $120
million over four years to kick start
renewable natural gas programs.
One program will spend $100
million to help the natural gas
industry adapt to meet renewable
content requirements and to encour-
age the use of renewables in industry,
transportation and buildings. The
other program earmarks $20 million
to pilot the use of renewable natural
gas as a transport fuel. Agricultural
and food waste are the feedstocks
identified to generate the gas for the
second program.
The programs are part and parcel
of Ontario’s new climate change
strategy, and Agriculture Minister Jeff
Leal says they complement the goal
to extend natural gas infrastructure to
rural areas throughout the province.
“We see the renewable (natural gas
generation) as a very complementary
activity (to the province’s natural gas
infrastructure extension program)
because as you can increase the
amount of renewable natural gas from
manure, et cetera, that means you
have the opportunity to reduce the
amount of natural gas from fossil
fuels,” he says in a June interview. Leal
says details of the $200 million loan
program for the extension of natural
gas infrastructure and a $30 million
loan program to natural gas compa-
nies will be rolled out in the fall.
The opportunities appear so
promising it’s hard not to cheer.
Another opportunity for farmers to
diversify. “Yay!” Finally, extension of
the natural gas infrastructure into
rural Ontario, something farmers
have long wanted. “Double Yay!”
But look more closely and ques-
tions appear. Just how significant are
the opportunities? How big is the
risk? And who will be best positioned
to take advantage?
Size matters
There are 37 anaerobic digesters in
Ontario. Thirty-five of these are
agricultural and rural systems. Most,
if not all, generate electricity for the
grid. With their anaerobic digesters
already in place, you’d think Ontario’s
early adopters of the technology such
as the Whales would be first in line.
Unlikely, Korb Whale says.
“I have a 20-year (electricity
generation) contract,” he explains.
Generating renewable biogas at
the same time is out of the question.
The infrastructure to generate
electricity is different from that
needed to produce renewable natural
gas for the grid.
Ontario has rolled out incentive programs for
renewable natural gas production. The outlook appears
promising for on-farm anaerobic digestion.
Could these programs also motivate
natural gas rural infrastructure expansion?