A federal biofuels incentive fund has followed through on its contribution agreements to support one of the Prairies’ major ethanol producers and a biodiesel facility in southern Ontario.
Husky Energy’s ethanol plant at Lloydminster, Sask. will get up to $71.8 million in funding over seven years through the government’s ecoEnergy for Biofuels program, which signed a contribution agreement with Husky on Feb. 17.
Also, Methes Energies Canada, a subsidiary of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based biofuel maker Methes Energies International, will get up to $5.4 million through the program, which signed its agreement with the company on Feb. 10.
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Methes’ project is a five million-litre per year biodiesel plant at Mississauga, Ont., using feedstocks such as soybean oil, chicken fats and beef tallow. The Husky plant, built in 2006, has a nameplate production capacity of 130 million litres of ethanol per year, made mostly from feed-grade wheat.
The incentive fund, which the government said is intended to “help stabilize the Canadian renewable fuel industry,” has a budget of $1.5 billion over nine years to fund biofuel production through to the end of March 2017.
The program has so far signed contribution agreements with 23 companies, which will be entitled to incentives for up to seven consecutive years. Out of 55 applications received as of Sept. 18, the program has deemed 28 applicants as eligible for funds.
The program’s managers have recently warned, however, that based on its current review, the ecoEnergy program “may not be able to fund all of the applications received to date.”
If some of the projects end up not moving forward, “additional applicants will be considered” for funds, the government said on the program website.
