A report has linked the potential of biomass as a source of renewable energy to greatly improving the safety of Whitehorse with a comprehensive fuel reduction program.

It says Firesmarting 4,000 hectares over 10 years would create private sector jobs and economy while displacing greenhouse gas emissions from diesel fuel by providing a reliable stream of woodchips to heat buildings.

The report suggests there is nothing about the technology that’s a mystery. The Austrian woodchip boilers discussed in the report are in common use in northern Austria – and have been for 20 years.

They are the same type of woodchip boilers the Teslin Tlingit Council is using to provide district heating, and the same as the Raven Recycling Society and Yukon Gardens are using.

But creating a biomass economy while Firesmarting the city would require the Yukon government and the City of Whitehorse to buy in as anchor customers for the woodchips if the proposal is to be viable, the report insists.

Local consultant Dave Loeks was commissioned by the Yukon Development Corp. to provide a discussion document looking at the viability of biomass as a form of renewable energy. The draft report was delivered to the corporation in late March.

Corporation president Justin Ferby said Thursday officials have received feedback from the different government departments and are in contact with Loeks to address some questions and assumptions.

The intent is to have the Biomass Fuels Development Strategy finalized before the end of the month, he told the Star.

Ferby said what Loeks provided was an example of an industrial application for biomass as a renewable energy.

The document suggests it’s not a matter of if Whitehorse will face the threat of a destructive wildfire some day. It’s a matter of when.

“It is generally understood that Whitehorse is positioned at the end of a forest fire blowtorch created by topography, prevailing winds, and abundant forest fuels,” says the introduction to the 40-page document.

“The fate of Fort McMurray, AB, and recently, Paradise, CA (Calif.) as a result of forest fire is not just possible here, but in time, probable. It is difficult to overstate the seriousness of this risk.... Whitehorse is no less vulnerable than these two examples.”

The report suggests commercializing the Firesmart program would generate the revenue to support a program that is comprehensive. Doing what needs to be done to make the city safer can’t be done under the current Firesmarting model, because it’s just too expensive.

The 10-year timeline to reduce forest fuels in the areas identified on a map included in the report would cost $30 million if done by hand, like it is now. If it’s done by machine, the cost would drop to $18.4 million, says the report.

To do the same amount of fuel abatement at the current pace would take 35 years, or long enough to question its usefulness, says the report.

A comprehensive Firesmart program would require some annual maintenance to ensure there’s no return of spruce and other coniferous trees that are volatile and feed the spread of wildfires. It may mean encouraging the growth of deciduous trees like popular and aspen that act as natural fire breaks.

The report says the anticipated amount of biomass energy generated by comprehensive fuel abatement would be substantial.

A minimum of 77 units of the same boiler Raven Recycling is using would need to be in place to make a biomass heating industry viable, but it’s completely doable, the report suggests.

It says it is entirely feasible to convert government buildings to woodchip boilers, while leaving the diesel fired system in place as back-up.

(It’s happening this summer at the Elijah Smith Elementary School as the result of a private sector proposal to install, maintain and supply three of the Austrian boilers under a heating contract.)

The report says the expertise to grow a biomass heating industry in the Yukon is here – and Whitehorse could serve as an example of the potential for other communities.

“Clearly there is a convergence of interests: the public has a pressing need for fuel abatement, there is an economic opportunity for biofuels, there is an intent to replace fossil fuels, there is an abundant local source of wood, and there is a private sector that is prepared to furnish a biofuels product and service,” says the report.

“But there is a “chicken-and-egg” problem. The private sector cannot gear up without secure access to wood in volume and without solid customers purchasing biofuels in volume.

“Moreover, public fire safety will not much be improved by incrementalism in forest fuels abatement. Conversely, the public sector cannot make significant accomplishments in fuel abatement with limited budgets and an inability to deal with the serious volumes of wood that must be removed.”

The city and the Yukon government must become “anchor customers,” the report insists.

It says a real opportunity exists to reduce the territory’s carbon footprint while keeping the money spent on heat in the local economy.

It’s a real opportunity to grow private sector investment in supplying biomass energy while making communities safer, the report insists.

It also emphasizes that in addition to Firesmarting public land, private property owners must do their part as well.

Not part of the report:

• In the three years since firing up its woodchip boiler, which is fed automatically by a conveyor system from the storage bin, Raven Recycling has cut its heating bill by half, with more to go.

• Teslin has 10 functioning units of the same make which heat 10 buildings, including the school, and they will add two more this summer to heat eight new duplexes.

They’re also bringing in a different woodchip unit that produces both heat and electricity.

It will be attached to the community’s heritage centre. When the unit is needed for heat outside the summer months, it will also be supplying the heritage centre with all of its electricity.

Teslin has not cut one stick of wood specifically to supply its district heat. Rather, all of it wood has so far come from clearing areas required for community development – new lots, new roads.

• The private sector initiative to put Elijah Smith Elementary School on woodchip heat was initiated by a company formed by experts in forestry, logging and heating systems.

• The city’s massive new operations building off Range Road will be heated by a diesel-fired boiler, although provisions have been made to accommodate a biomass boiler in the future. But the city has no current plans to heat the building with local wood.