
How Bioenergy and the Forest Sector Can Help Meet Canada’s Energy Demands
Every winter, Canadians bemoan the rising cost of heating their homes and businesses. Yet, even amid discussion about the energy transition away from fossil fuels, few Canadians know about bioenergy—a sustainable approach that can play an important role in meeting Canada’s energy needs while simultaneously helping address climate change.
Bioenergy refers to when biomass—plant-based materials such as wood waste or residuals, like sawdust—is used to generate energy. Bioenergy is already widely used in some Nordic countries and is the largest source of renewable energy globally today.
“Biomass energy is a true alternative to fossil fuel-based energy sources as it does not release any long-term stored carbon to the ecosystem,” says Cal Dakin, director of innovation and woodlands for Mercer International, a pulp, biomaterials and lumber company.
Canada’s forest sector is in a prime position to help address energy challenges as well as build a more sustainable and circular economy as the primary source of biomass. By converting wood chips, residues and bark—materials that often have very limited alternative uses—into bioenergy, not only is a new market created for those materials, but it also reduces our reliance on fossil fuels while making our forests more resilient.
“Through more active, climate-smart forest management—thinning to removing dead, diseased and dying trees, thus providing more light and space for remaining trees—you generate a lot of very low-grade material,” explains Jamie Stephen, managing director with TorchLight, a Nova Scotia-based bioenergy and decarbonization advisor and project developer. “This is not wood that’s going to be used for lumber or other products. So there has to be a market for this material if we want to better manage forests, reduce wildfires and limit the amount of carbon that’s being released. Though counterintuitive, we actually need to harvest more—often through thinnings—if we want to store more carbon in the forest.”
As a northern country, Canada uses energy primarily for heat generation—the focus must be on developing more efficient and sustainable heat energy sources. “Almost two thirds of our energy consumption is heat,” says Stephen. “And this is where biomass has a critical role to play. If we want to have a competitive economy, we need to focus on using electricity for things that are best electrified. Heat is not that. It’s like using a chainsaw to cut butter: it works, but it is overkill and there are better tools.”
Going beyond electricity
Stephen points out that bioenergy offers a combined heat and power scenario versus other renewable sources that generate only electricity. When carbon capture and storage are added to the equation, it’s a no-brainer. Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, or BECCS, involves capturing and permanently storing CO2 from processes where biomass is burned to generate energy. Because plants absorb CO2 as they grow, this is a way of permanently removing CO2 from the atmosphere; in fact, BECCS is the only carbon dioxide-removal technique that can also provide energy. Therefore, BECCS can help decarbonize sectors such as heavy industry, aviation and trucking while simultaneously replacing natural gas in heat and power generation and reducing carbon losses from wildfires.

“Capturing carbon from biomass and either using the carbon in long-lived products or sequestering the carbon will result in a net reduction in atmospheric carbon,” affirms Dakin. “It presents the opportunity for negative carbon emissions.”
Stephen agrees. “This is where the forest industry is critical because biomass, or wood, is carbon dioxide pulled from the atmosphere; [it] stores that solar energy. It’s essentially nature’s battery. It’s incredible. And if we don’t use it, guess what happens? It burns off all that energy. That’s what wildfires are—a release of solar energy.”
Acting as a battery, bioenergy is ideal to supplement solar and wind power by providing reliable baseload generation in the evenings or when there’s limited wind as an alternative to fossil fuel generation. Biomass generation is also suitable in northern communities where solar and wind are not economically feasible. Burning wood for heat is a far more environmentally friendly option than diesel generators. Plus, as Dakin emphasizes, “electricity generated from biomass is indistinguishable from any other power source, allowing biomass generation to contribute to—and stabilize—the electrical grid from more variable solar and wind sources.”
A pathway to the successful adoption of bioenergy
The forest sector is key to making bioenergy viable as a major source of energy, for both heat and power. “The industry is already creating primary forest products that bear most of the cost of planning, harvesting and hauling of forest biomass to a mill for processing,” says Dakin. “Partnering with forest companies to procure residual fibre is the most effective means of securing cost-effective and sustainable biomass.”
Additionally, forest companies harvest in an ecologically sustainable way as required by provincial policies on crown lands, where 90 per cent of Canada’s forests are located. That means the forest industry can provide sustainable sources of biomass and take advantage of other ways to garner biomass through active forest management. “New opportunities exist to capture more biomass for bioenergy including top piles—unused portions of trees left after harvesting—marginal stands, fire salvage, insect attacked stands, precommercial thinning and more,” says Dakin.

“As markets for bioenergy become more mature, and the cost structure is better understood, more opportunities to commercialize sources of biomass will become feasible.”
Environmental benefits of bioenergy are obvious with lower and potentially negative greenhouse gas emissions. “Canada’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, by far, are wildfires,” says Stephen. “So having better forest management reduces greenhouse gasses and provides biomass for bioenergy. And bioenergy replaces energy that would traditionally come from fossil fuels. Plus, a key benefit for the consumer is that it’s affordable and energy expenditures stay within the community.”
Expanding bioenergy through policy
“Governments need to continue to support access to sustainable, cost-effective fibre, and the associated biomass,” says Dakin. “Government financial support is justified because governments own the forests and have a responsibility for all the carbon losses that are occurring.” Dakin also stresses the need for policy to support BECCS technologies for bioenergy to become net carbon negative. “Governments have a place in de-risking new technologies that will have a broader societal benefit as is the case with bioenergy.”
Both Dakin and Stephen also emphasize the need for policy to go beyond electrification for decarbonization; it must extend to support centralized heat and biomass baseload generation. “This aspect of a stable green power grid is often overlooked where fossil fuel is required to supply the grid with power when renewable energy is unavailable,” says Dakin. “Fossil fuel generation has a competitive advantage with its infrastructure having long been paid off, keeping new biomass generation on the sidelines. Incentives to prioritize green baseload development and availability will be required to further reduce ongoing dependency on fossil fuels.”
At the end of the day, Canada needs a new energy solution that is sustainable, affordable, effective and reduces our carbon emissions. Bioenergy fuelled by forest biomass ticks all the boxes. “Biomass, no longer a waste stream, is driving a new wave of innovation that is helping meet Canada’s long-term decarbonation goals,” affirms Dakin.
But in order for bioenergy to become a major heat and power energy source, as in other northern countries like Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, governments in Canada must actively step in to support sustainable forest management on the lands they own as well as developing a bioenergy infrastructure that is accessible and competitive. All of these bioenergy components are already in practice—in some cases, in a widespread capacity—so it comes down to taking advantage of the homegrown resources we have and committing to energy solutions that best meet Canadian needs.