Feedstock availability and power costs associated with using BC's beetle-infested pine : Mountain pine beetle infested wood to power

The MPB has caused extensive damage to trees in British Columbia, threatening the future health of the forestry industry and the viability of several communities in some areas of the province. [...] The second location is adjacent to Quesnel, B. C., which has a lower density of MPB killed trees in the region and hence a higher cost of transportation of fuel to the plant but that has the advantage of a closer location to the existing high voltage BC Hydro transmission line and a lower plant construction cost. [...] The 240 MW gross plant is based on the nominal design capacity of the Pietarsaari plant; the 300 MW net plant is based on a tradeoff between the cost benefit of large scale against the risk of building a large single plant. [...] The 300 MW net plant sited in Quesnel is the recommended option, and the levelized cost of power from this size of plant is less than $70 per MW excluding any potential federal or provincial subsidies for green power and excluding the value of any carbon credits from the project. [...] The project has the potential to qualify both for a proposed federal subsidy for new green power initiatives and also for carbon credits, since the impact of the plant is to reduce the demand for incremental future power generation based on fossil fuels.