The Liberal Law Project would require taking into account the wooden heat for public buildings NS

The leader of the Liberal House, Iain Rankin, says that a draft law that his party submitted last week to the province of House would create new markets for the forest industry, while helping to heat public buildings with something other than oil.

The law of wood heating systems in public buildings would require government officials to take into account the wooden heat systems in all new public buildings or in cases of major redevelopment, including for schools and hospitals.

In an interview last week, Rankin said there will be more benefits for the initiative.

“For the climate, because it is a renewable resource. It could be a cost savings for the province due to the volatility of oil prices – so it moves oil – and creates a good economic advantage for the provincial areas that are predominantly rural.

Rankin said the bill is out of the head LaHey 2018 report on sustainable forest practices, which has supported the use of efficient wood heat as a way to create markets for wood chips and low -degree silviculture products from ecological forestry. The industry has endeavored to find such markets since stopping the northern pulp factory in the Pictou county five years ago.

When Rankin was the Minister of Forest and Forest In a former liberal government, he said that exists an extended list of public buildings that could be converted at wooden heat. However, since the change of government in 2021, he said that there is less interest in using wooden heat. He called the Minister of Natural Resources, Tory Rushton, to champion the cause as a way to promote more ecological forestry and to create an economic development for rural communities.

In a recent interview, Rushton said he is interested in exploring new wooden and low quality wooden markets and noted a continuous assessment of a new cellulose factory in Queens County and the potential creation of an aviation fuel hub. durable that would make biomass use as part of the process.

Rankin’s draft law comes on the path of a report of Torchlight Bioresources, based on Nova Scotia, which makes the case of combined heat and combined heat -combined boilers, together with the associated district heating networks, throughout the province.

Another option that incorporates wooden heat

The plants would be powered by low quality wood products and the side products of ecological forestry, with generated electricity that enters the network and generated heat delivered in houses and buildings through a network of underground pipes. According to the report, the process is common in countries such as Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

“None of this is experimental, this is actually what caused the decarbonization in these (countries),” said Jamie Stephen, the general director of Torchlight, in a recent interview.

Although the establishment of power plants and pipeline networks would cost billions of dollars, the report indicates the financing options through pension and investment funds in private capital, without giving up the property. The cooperative property, which is common in Europe, is another option.

Ștefan said that combined heat and district power systems would contribute to the control of heating costs in the province, while making Nova Scotia dependent on energy imports and positioning the province to become a net energy exporter.