Shelburne pellet plant likely a pipe dream

Dreamers, visionaries & cardboard companies

If the track record of Peter Lane in recent years - in Nova Scotia and elsewhere - is any indication,  his recent announcement of Shelburne as a possible location for a wood pellet plant and land-based aquaculture operation is not likely to amount to much.

Lane is an entrepreneur who has pitched energy projects in Weymouth, Cape Breton, British Columbia and Georgia in the past few years, with none of them coming to fruition.

Lane told the Herald that he was vice-president of project development for Georgia Biofuels LLC, who were putting together a major wood pellet project in Waynesville GA. Georgia Biofuels is not registered with the Georgia Secretary of State's office and economic development officials in the region say they have never heard of Peter Lane or Georgia Biofuels LLC.

The Enova Energy Group announced some months ago that it would build a 330,000 ton biofuels facility in Waynesville. The project would be called First Georgia Bio-Energy. Enova president Zachary Steele said in an interview with SCT that his firm has had some discussions with Peter Lane, but that Lane was not part of that project or any other contemplated by Enova. The Waynesville project has been replaced by another project by Enova.

In 2011, Peter Lane testified at the Senate Standing Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources hearing in Ottawa regarding renewable energy. Lane billed himself then as a principal with Sprague Lake Enterprises, which had its Registry of Joint Stocks registration revoked six months later.

During the testimony, Lane told the committee that he represented Sea2Sky Energy UK and its chairman Richard Walton in Canada and he was involved in a consortium of several companies planning to construct several "torrefaction" facilities in Nova Scotia, employing up to 160 people. 

Richard Walton is considered one of the world's authorities on the "torrefaction" biomass and writes a popular blog on the subject. In an interview with SCT, Walton said that Lane never represented Sea2Sky UK and was not involved in any of the firm's projects.

In a follow-up email, Lane told SCT that Sea2Sky UK manufactured a bio coal manufacturing plant, and "I had hoped they might be able to provide the equipment I needed."

Walton told SCT that, in partnership with the Halifax-based CCI Group, that he was engaged in a biodesiel project in Nova Scotia Harbour. Lane testified to the Senate Committee that he also represented CCI Group.

CCI Group Inc. principal Bill Arsenault told SCT that "at no time was [Lane] ever a spokesman for CCI Group Inc or employed by CCI Group Inc." he went on to say that "he is in no way associated in any capacity with the related torrefaction project we and the UK group are involved in Nova Scotia."

The CCI Nova Scotia project, according to Arsenault, has been in the making for more than two years and involves torrefaction of wood products. He likened the process to the traditional roasting of coffee beans, where all water is removed from the bean. 

The wood fiber is then compressed into a briquette, giving a cost effective, carbon neutral commodity for transport to power utilities as a fuel.  

CCI anticipates a start-up of thirty new jobs and those employees will require on-going training that will enhance their skill levels and reflect in their incomes.

When asked why Lane would appear to be engaged peripherally in so many biofuel projects, but few, if any, would come to fruition, Walton told SCT, "I won't address the matter of Peter Lane specifically, but the downstream potential of this industry is so great that it appears to attract more than its shares of dreamers and brokers and wannabes."

Walton went on to say, "some of the firms representing themselves as legitimate are nothing more than shells, or cardboard cutouts of real companies." On his blog, and in interviews, Walton talks about the "difference between torrefaction and torrefiction." On one blog post, Walton describes some of the the industry "types" as 'the wanna-bees', 'the fishermen', 'the money men', 'the idea men', etc.

"We found that it was important for our survival to separate the visionaries from the dreamers and cut loose those merely dreaming," said Walton. 

In 2010, Lane, a British expatriate, told the Herald that he was proposing to build a $6 million bio-coal manufacturing plant near a 160-hectare property he said he owned in southwest Nova Scotia. "It’s the same as charcoal," he said at the time, "but different." This is one project which was the subject of his testimony before the Seante Committee.

In an email interview, Lane told SCT that the Weymouth project had been placed on hold because "other issues are still to be resolved such as classification of materials for shipment." Lane also said that, "a commercial bio coal plant for production of pellets to be shipped to Europe is not viable at this stage."

"I have been trying now for nearly 3 years to build a pellet plant in the province," Lane added, "I have put everything I had into this and basically lost the lot, and yet I still try just because I do not like to be beaten." he went on top say that "Nova Scotia has to be one of the hardest places in the world to build a commercially viable plant," but did not expand on that.

Lane was once a capital projects manager with Nova Scotia Power Inc., and when that contract ended, according to government sources, he approached the Nova Scotia Government seeking funds to complete a business plan for other projects.

Lane told the Herald that he intended to use a 16-hectare industrial site next to Shelburne Harbour, which would accommodate an expanded facility with onshore fish farming, hydroponics, carbon dioxide capture and algae production.

The land is currently owned by Nova Scotia Business Inc., which is negotiating its sale to the Municipality of Shelburne and Kirk Cox, the chief administrative officer, told SCT that he has had no substantive discussions with Lane about the property.

Several potential buyers are likely to be interested in the land and Cox insists that the sales process will be open and transparent.

There is no doubt that renewable energy will continue to grow as a market segment. The Renewables 2012 Global Status Report by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century said in a July report that “global new investment in renewable power and fuels increased by 17 per cent to a new record of US$257 billion.”

The use of biomass for heat, electricity and transport fuels that has increased international trade in biomass fuels, especially wood pellets.

Richard Walton believes that torrefaction - which increases both the BTU content and shipability of pellets or "bricks" of biomass - will grow exponentially, as municipalities and nations continue to seek energy generation methods with increasingly smaller carbon footprints.

Lane told the Herald that Shelburne is an ideal location for a wood pellet plant because there is abundant feedstock in the region for wood chips and that the pellets would be exported to Europe, shipping directly from Shelburne harbour.

The problem with that scenario, says a source currently engaged in biomass fuel generation and export projects in the province, is that the capital costs for market entry are enormous and there will be strong competition for use of the available biomass. "The Nova Scotia government has made it clear that they will not be funding projects designed to ship biomass out of the province."

Since Europe is the only current realistic market for torrified wood pellets or other similar products, that creates a problem.

In an online business profile, Lane says he is engaged with a group of investors in "re-purposing" a paper mill in Nova Scotia. When asked if he could say which mill, Lane replied, "I would love to but, no, I can not." Business associates of Lane's tell SCT that he has been discussing the paper mills at Port Hawksbury and Liverpool. 

While refusing to name his partners or the project, Lane ended his last email with a somewhat cryptic message that, "we will very shortly be in a position where 'all will be revealed' as they say."