Forest Biomass Supply/Demand estimates for NS

This is a subpage of Bioeconomy
View that page for other subpages


Page  posted Nov 26, 2024

These are rough estimates based on public available info.
‘Will be revised as better data are obtained or (preferably), government/industry produce  authoritative, publicly available stats.

– Updated Nov 8, 2025


 

Entity Current
or Projected
Green Tonnes
per annum
Comments
PHP Current 700,000 Heat &Electricity, 60 MW generator
Brooklyn Energy Current 325,000 Heat & Electricity  30 MW generator
Hefler Current 40,000 Heat & Electricity 3.7 MW generator
Dalhousie AC Campus Truro Current 20,000 Heat, and 1 MW electriciy generator
Shaw Resouces- pellets Current 105,000 Assume 2.1 Green Tonnes/Tonne Pellets
GNT- Pellets Current 210,000 Comments
Northern Pulp Pictou Current 281,000 26 MW, estimated GT.Not clear if ongoing in 2024
BDO SW Nova Scotia Projected 550,000 Comments
Simply  Blue Projected 750,000 Green Hydrogen project
Chip Exports Current 400,000 estimate
District Heating** Current 3,800,000 estimate
Other Current 100,000 Guesstimate
Total Current
& Projected
7,281,000

NOTES Northern Pulp before it closed took in approx 265,000 odt roundwood fibre, and 263,000 odt sawmill by-products per annum (source: Feedstock Availability and Cost in Nova Scotia By County and Specific Locations. FP Innovations, NS Innovation Hub, Aug 2021) approx. equal to 1,056,000 Green Tonnes (assuming 50% moisture). When it closed, apparently much or most of the “roundwood fibre” came from chips produced by sawmills processing smaller diameter roundwood from thinnings,  treetops etc. (see Pulp Culture: How Nova Scotia’s Faustian bargain with the pulp industry may leave the sawmills in ruins Linda Pannozzo in Halifax Examiner Mar 12, 2019; also Forest Thinnings for Integrated Lumber and Paper Production, J.Y. Zhu et al., 2007 in Forest Products Journal )
Sources
– **Local Energy, Healthy Forests, Strong Communities: Strategy for a Nova Scotia Alternative Energy Future by Jamie Stephen et al., Torchlight Bioresources, Feb 2025, page 17
Nova Scotia Biomass FAQ on forestdefenders.eu (2021)
https://www.dal.ca/content/dam/www/about/mission-vision-and-values/sustainability/energy-green-building-plan.pdf
http://nsforestnotes.ca/2018/11/22/can-dalhousieac-lead-the-way-on-proper-accounting-for-bioenergy-in-nova-scotia/
https://novascotia.ca/nse/ea/nova-sustainable-fuels-renewable-energy/


Update Feb 9, 2025

Screncapture from a presentation by Jamie Stephen posted on Youtube, at approx 27:00 min..Title: How to cut Maritime GHG emissions by 30% by 2030 These figures are for NB, NS and PEI combined. The annual fibre requirement is equivalent to the total wood harvests for NS circa 2000 when our forests were seriously degraded by overharvesting. (His numbers and assumptions- explicit and implicit – need to be critically reviewed!)