The decision by Woodfibre LNG to run its operation off electric power was driven, according to the company, by feedback generated by community consultation and concerns about air quality. Woodfibre says the use of electricity generated by BC Hydro as opposed to natural gas will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent, and also drastically reduce other pollutants entering the atmosphere. Merran Smith, the Bowen-based Director of Clean Energy Canada says this decision should set the standard for the other LNG operations in British Columbia.
In 2010, following the introduction of a carbon tax and a ban on coal-fired electricity, the BC government introduced the Clean Energy Act mandating the province source 93 percent of its electricity from clean and renewable sources. In 2012, the province announced its Liquid Natural Gas strategy and the goal of having at least three LNG facilities on the BC Coast by 2020. With that came the promise that British Columbia would produce the cleanest liquefied natural gas in the world.
In 2013, Clean Energy Canada wrote a report titled ‘The Cleanest LNG in the World’ outlining how British Columbia could maintain its climate change leadership and also pursue the policy decision to focus on the extraction and export of LNG. One of the report’s major recommendations was that LNG facilities in British Columbia should use electric drives to cool the gas into a liquid state.
“From a carbon perspective,” says Smith, “Using hydro electricity as opposed to gas to power to fuel the liquid natural gas industry is the only way British Columbia can meet its commitments to a clean energy economy.”
Following Woodfibre’s announcement, the provincial minister in charge of LNG development, Rich Coleman, told the Globe and Mail that because of the high cost of electricity in comparison with natural gas, British Columbia will only measure its emission standards only against other gas-fired LNG plants.
