Dan Reams of Watson Lake and his son Jesse are serious about their business proposal.

They want to take a large government building in Watson Lake off of heating fuel.

They want to put the building on wood heat using a sophisticated unit manufactured in Finland that also generates electricity.

Dan Reams is over there right now looking into the deal. He was over there having a look last year as well.

And Jesse was in Whitehorse this week attending the two-day forum on biomass energy.

The business model being floated by the father-and-son team is straightforward: earn a fee for saving the government money on diesel fuel by heating the building with local wood, get paid for suppling the building with electricity and sell whatever excess electricity there is back to the isolated grid under the new Independent Power Producer policy.

It’s a viable proposal, Jesse says during an interview Wednesday.

“I have stacks of spread sheets.”

Reams says they have been speaking with the government for over a year, and the government is most definitely interested, though they have not identified a building or signed any papers yet.

Using local wood, says Reams, means more local employment opportunities, and having a local fuel supply means keeping the money for energy in the community.

“It’s possible to be on line this year,” says the 27-year-old. “That is our goal.

“But there are still a lot of things that have to be nailed down.”

The same single Volter unit the Reams are considering to power their Watson Lake proposal is currently providing the heat and electricity for 32 condos at a company village near to the factory where Volter makes the units. The units can be hooked in series to provide for larger demands.

Reams declined to be too specific about the financial aspects of the proposal, though he did confirm the price of the Volter unit is $300,000, and the payback on the the initial investment to get the project up and running is four to five years.

It’s baby steps right now, but the intent is to expand the biomass project in Watson Lake, to add to and grow the local economy, even if it’s just a little for now by contracting out the wood supply, says Reams.

He was approached by a representative of the Liard First Nation over one coffee break.

He did emphasize how Ryan Hennessey of the government’s energy branch told the audience how the government, having just passed its bioenergy strategy, is committed to two biomass heating projects going forward in the next year.

“We are hoping to be one of those two projects.”

Shane Andre, the director of the energy branch, said today the government indeed wants to advance a couple of biomass pilot projects in the next year.

They need to identify which government buildings would be suitable candidates, and they need entrepreneuers interested in pursuing projects to come forward.

“So yeah, Watson Lake is definitely a strong contender.”

Andre said the biomass strategy commits the government to finding ways to making the biomass industry viable in the Yukon.

“So if folks come forward, and they have a good project, we are going to help them.”

As much as there was enthusiasum and encouragement among the 30-plus attending the forum over the last two days, there were also resounding words of caution.

It is of the utmost importance to ensure there’s a solid match between the chosen biomass system and the needs to be provided for.

There’s a long list of failures because of mismatches, having the wrong equipment or not having qualified personnel to service systems that can be complicated, the audience heard.

The audience heard how systems vary in application and sophistication.

There are straightforward wood-fired boilers to provide heat, such as the system installed last week at the Raven Recycling Centre.

Then there are those that turn wood into gas to create heat and drive turbines to generate electricity, like the unit being considered by the Reams for use in Watson Lake.

Gasifying systems are particularly finicky, senior research scientist Fernando Preto of Natural Resources Canada warned the audience.

A unit installed at a Canadian university to provide heat and electricity worked fine for two months, he added.

But after that, it would still produce the heat, but they just couldn’t get the electrical generation to work properly, the audience heard from the chemical engineer whose career is focused on biomass energy.

As a scientist, he said, he has to be a realist.

From the podium, Preto cautioned Jesse and another local fellow interested in a micro gasifier unit to handle the wood waste from his modest sawmilling operation.

“Jesse, Byron (Gagne), yes, you can install systems,” he said.

“But do not expect they are going to operate smoothly from day one.”