A proposal to build a garbage incinerator at the Tsawwassen First Nation is in Metro Vancouver's short list of potential waste-to-energy facilities.
Aquilini Renewable Energy, owned by Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini, is part of the privately-held Aquilini Investment Group that's been working with the TFN on building a WTE plant.
A report to Metro Vancouver's Zero Waste Committee this month provided the short list of 10 firms in the running to build a plant.
Metro had investigated 22 applications, using a third-party expert panel and a "fairness advisor" to ensure the procurement process was not biased toward any one technology.
Seven of the 10 proposals, including the one for the TFN, are for mass-burn facilities.
The other proposed technologies include gasification, anaerobic digestion and burning something called refuse-derived fuel.
"Mass-burn systems vary slightly in how they extract energy from the waste, but are typified by the ability to feed raw, unprocessed municipal solid waste (MSW) directly into a furnace for combustion. Mass-burn systems produce steam that can be converted to electricity through the use of a steam turbine generator and/or sold as heat through a district energy system," the Metro report explains.
The shortlisted applicants will be invited to speak to the Zero Waste Committee in the fall to provide additional information about their proposed technologies. The list of applicants will be narrowed to five later this year.
Should Metro Vancouver decide to have a WTE facility in the region, a potentially huge advantage for the Tsawwassen First Nation is that its industrial master plan, already approved by Tsawwassen members, has 30 acres set aside as an "energy park" with the idea of constructing such a facility.
Other proposals in the region may have to go through a lengthy public hearing and rezoning process, possibly facing opposition from angry residents.
The TFN plan would not require Delta's approval, however, a stumbling block could be the continued opposition from the Fraser Valley.
One of the other short listed proposals is also located in Delta. That proposal comes from Lehigh Cement on River Road.
Metro Vancouver intends to have a site selected by 2015.
A recent report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives recommends Metro Vancouver not build any new waste-to-energy plants and that the existing incinerator in Burnaby be phased out.
