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The Nova Scotia government has issued a tender to convert five public buildings to wood heat systems — a move one member of the forestry sector says will have widespread benefits.
The tender targets heating infrastructure at the Nova Scotia Community College’s Kingstec campus, Roseway Hospital in Shelburne, Digby General Hospital, Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Middleton, and St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish.
According to the tender documents, the wood-heat systems will be designed, built, owned, operated and maintained by the successful bidders under a 20-year term. Each site will be awarded as a separate contract.
Successful bidders will also be responsible for procuring the wood fuel.
Upside for contractors, woodlot owners
The province stated in the tender documents that it “expects the focus of wood procurement to be from small private woodlots,” stipulating that 100 per cent of the lower-grade primary wood fuel must be harvested within Nova Scotia.
Marcus Zwicker, a board member with Forest Nova Scotia and COO at Queens County-based mill Harry Freeman and Son, said the plan offers a lot of upside.
Wood heat is cheaper and more efficient, which will lower fuel bills for the selected facilities, Zwicker said. A requirement of the new systems is that they displace at least 90 per cent of the fuel oil currently consumed annually at each site.
Zwicker added that requiring boilers to be fed with Nova Scotia product opens up new markets for local forestry contractors and woodlot owners while ensuring cheaper wood cannot be brought in from outside jurisdictions.
“It creates another income stream,” he said.
Because these high-efficiency boilers can’t use standard sawmill chips due to high moisture content, the new systems will rely on specialized pellets or chips that have undergone a drying process.
These five buildings are the first slated for conversion since the provincial government announced a strategy last year to increase the use of wood heat and timber construction in public buildings. They will join 20 other public buildings, including hospitals in Bridgewater and Kentville, that are already heated with wood.
Public Works Minister Fred Tilley told reporters Thursday that he believes the initiative can “grow exponentially.”
“We’ve made a commitment for as many buildings as possible to go to wood heat,” he said. “We have this product here in our own backyard and we should be utilizing as much of it as possible.”
The tender closes June 24.
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