I’m more and more appreciating the potential role that biogas production will play as our economy moves away from fossil fuels. I have a story today on Toronto Hydro’s efforts to build a 10-megawatt generation facility in the city’s east end that would burn biogas pumped in from a neighbouring wastewater treatment facility. In return, the byproduct thermal energy from the generation process will be sent back to the treatment facility, which relies on heat for a variety of applications. This kind of co-generation setup makes oodles of sense and can — and should — be replicated across other municipalities. The Ashbridge’s Bay treatment facility in Toronto’s east end is ideal because of its size. As the largest facility of its kind in the country, it treats the wastewater that’s flushed from 1.3 million residents.

The opportunities to tap energy from decaying biomass are seemingly endless. Cavendish Farms, a maker of potato products in Prince Edward Island, recently announced the commissioning of a facility that turns potato waste into biogas, which is then used in the boilers of the potato processing plant. (more…)

About 10,000 Toronto Hydro customers already on smart meters will soon be moving to time-of-use pricing and the rest will be moving by the end of this year, so it makes sense that the utility give folks a way to actually see their electricity use. The company just announced this morning it will be testing out Google’s PowerMeter on select customers, making it the first Canadian utility to do so. If the trial is successful, Toronto Hydro said it may make the software available to all of its customer. Keep in mind the information provided through the Google PowerMeter won’t be granular — i.e., it won’t provide energy usage of individual appliances; just overall residential energy use.

NOTE: My story in the Toronto Star.

I say “must-see”, of course, because I’ll be moderating the panel

But seriously, this year’s Green Living Show in Toronto between April 24 and 26 will be more geared this year to the cleantech crowd, specifically on Day 1 . Beginning with some opening comments from Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Toronto mayor David Miller (and a provincial announcement of some sort), the panel will kick off at around 10 a.m. and will explore what businesses can do to benefit from cleantech and green energy. About 30 or so CEOs from Canada’s cleantech sector will be in the audience as well.

Panelists will include:

1) Nick Parker, co-founder and executive chairman and overall excellent guy of the Cleantech Group.

2) Dr. Hermann Scheer, author, German legislator and president of EUROSOLAR.

3) David O’Brien, president and CEO of Toronto Hydro Corp.

4) Someone from PriceWaterhouseCoopers will also be on the panel to talk about the tax benefits/implications for businesses that purchase/deploy green technologies.

The morning session will be followed by a keynote speech from Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz.com, co-founder of Clean Edge Inc., author of blog Two Steps Forward, and author of the new business book Strategies for the Green Economy.

It should be an interesting and informative morning… and show.