But there is a silver lining. Ontario Power Generation saw its fossil-fuel generation, mostly coal, fall by a whopping two-thirds. It means that during the second quarter 91 per cent of electricity generated by OPG was free of greenhouse gases and other smog-causing emissions, thanks to our hydroelectric and nuclear fleet.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could hold the line on emissions as the economy recovers? That would happen if Premier Dalton McGuinty makes good on his promise to eliminate all coal-fired generation in the province by 2014 (actually, I believe the original target was 2007, then 2009, so we’re on promise No. 3). Rumour is McGuinty may attempt to beat the 2014 deadline just in time for the next election, and he may have a shot given the plunge in demand caused by the recession. But to do it, he’ll also need to convert some coal units so they can burn biomass, and have to push even harder on conservation, and he’ll need to move quickly to approve wind and hydroelectric projects in the province. Nuclear is not part of this equation, because any new plants or refurbishment projects wouldn’t be completed in time.

The next few years should be very interesting.

I wrote about the government’s coal-to-biomass power generation strategy last fall and it appears to be gaining some momentum. It’s an ambitious project. Not just from a technical perspective, in terms of the actual plant conversion, but perhaps even more so from a logistical perspective. We’re talking huge volumes of biomass — whether in the form of wood or switchgrass or some other pelletized biosolid. It requires development of a reliable supply chain. If it can be done, the reduction in air pollution and CO2 emissions is just one benefit. Displacing imported coal with local biomass would give birth to an industry, local jobs, and leverage existing generation and transmission assets in the province. “The tricky part is ensuring that the fuel is produced sustainably,” says Keith Stewart of WWF-Canada, who supports the idea of turning several units at the Nanticoke generating station into biomass burners. “If we produce 2.5 to 3 terawatt-hours of electricity from biomass at Nanticoke it would allow Nanticoke to play the stabilizing role for the grid it does now while creating an infrastructure for a biomass sector.” Local greenhouse operations in the area, by leveraging that infrastructure, would also have a steady supply of biomass that could replace the burning of bunker oil or natural gas.

For perspective, 2.5 terawatt-hours is about 10 per cent of the electricity that was generated last year in Ontario by OPG’s four existing coal plants — enough to supply 200,000 homes with electricity for a year. Generating this much electricity with biomass is an immensely ambitious effort, but if OPG can pull it off, it would set a fine example for other jurisdictions looking to reduce their dependence on coal power as talk of cap-and-trade heats up under an Obama administration.

My Clean Break column today takes a closer look at efforts by Ontario Power Generation to convert some of its coal-fired generating assets into biomass-burning power plants, including potentially several units at its Nanticoke Generating Station – North America’s largest coal plant. The provincial Liberal government has vowed to shut down the last of Ontario’s coal plants by 2014, and biomass conversion is being seriously considered as a way of partially getting there. It’s an ambitious undertaking, given the scale of such a project, but successfully making it happen would solve many problems with one solution.

Shutting down Nanticoke, while a good move for environmental reasons, will cause many headaches in the area. More jobs will be lost in a region of the province already suffering from economic decline. Mothballing Nanticoke leaves a 4,000 megawatt hole in Ontario’s grid. And the loss of that generation takes away some crucial voltage support for the entire electricity system. By converting three or four of the eight units at Nanticoke into biomass and shutting down the rest, some jobs can be kept, some voltage support and generation is kept, fewer new plants or transmission projects are needed in the area, and the large demand for biomass can create a local supply chain that could provide a significant boost to the regional economy.

OPG has tested biomass burns and blends at all four of its plants — Nanticoke, Thunder Bay, Atikokan and Lambton — but so far the most progress has been at Atikokan, a 200-megawatt plant that in July successfully burned 100 per cent wood pellets for a day. A three-day burn is scheduled for early December, and OPG officials say Atikokan will likely be the first plant converted to biomass. After that, attention will likely turn to Nanticoke, which has so far co-fired wood pellets and wheat shorts with coal as part of tests.

Blending isn’t the final objective. Blending produces ash that can’t be used by the cement industry, like coal ash, and can’t be used as fertilizer, like pure biomass ash. But getting to 100 per cent biomass burn has some technical issues, including the impact on equipment (i.e. soot buildup and the extra maintenance required to clean it) and the difficulty of establishing a secure supply chain. The latter issue is what OPG considers its biggest challenge, given the huge volumes of locally produced, non-food biomass it would require.

Despite these challenges, it’s encouraging to see the province moving in this direction. I don’t think converting coal plants to biomass is a long-term solution, but it’s a good medium-term solution that will create a stable local supply chain. As the remaining Nanticoke units are retired, the biomass can go toward supporting the emergence of more efficient combined heat and power (CHP) plants distributed throughout the area.