Written Submission for the…

Written Submission for the Ontario’s Draft Forest Sector Strategy

About Enbridge Inc.

Enbridge Inc. is a leading North American energy infrastructure company. We safely and reliably deliver the energy people need and want to fuel quality of life. Our core businesses include Liquids Pipelines, which transports approximately 25 percent of the crude oil produced in North America; Gas Transmission and Midstream, which transports approximately 20 percent of the natural gas consumed in the U.S.; and Utilities and Power Operations, which serves approximately 3.7 million retail customers in Ontario and Quebec, and generates approximately 1,600 MW of net renewable power in North America and Europe. The Company’s common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol ENB.

Life takes energy and Enbridge exists to fuel people’s quality of life. For more information, visit www.enbridge.com.

Introduction

Enbridge would like to thank the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) for this opportunity to engage and provide input to its Draft Forest Sector Strategy. Enbridge supports the Ontario MNRF vision of being a preferred location for investing in commodity and innovative forest products and recognizing Ontario’s forestry sector as a world leader in making and selling forest products from renewable, sustainable and responsibly managed forests.
Pillars of Action

As one of the largest renewable energy companies in Canada, Enbridge is committed to the sustainable development of lower carbon resources and energy infrastructure. Enbridge is encouraged by the four pillars of action outlined in the Draft Forestry Sector Strategy and would like to highlight how Enbridge’s experience and goals can support revitalizing Ontario’s forestry sector through fostering innovation and creating new markets for forest products.

Fostering Innovation, Markets and Talent

Within North America, a burgeoning new market for bioenergy has been developing. Traditionally bioenergy developments have consisted of power generation from woody biomass or biogas; however, renewable fuel policies within Canada and the US have led to realizing significant supplies of bioenergy in the form of Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) or biomethane. RNG is a type of “green gas” that can be used in the province’s existing natural gas distribution piping and storage networks to heat homes and businesses, as well as use in other sectors such as the medium-to-heavy duty transportation sector, which displaces conventional natural gas and thereby reduces upstream GHG emissions. Enbridge has been supporting RNG developments within Ontario since 2011, and most recently has been collaborating with the City of Toronto to upgrade their biogas into RNG, which is then injected into the Enbridge gas distribution system. While the majority of current RNG supplies are derived from landfill gas or biogas from the anaerobic digestion of organic wastes, a 2011 study estimating RNG supplies in Ontario showed that the majority of potential RNG supplies may be derived from the processing of biomass (lignocellulosic) wastes. This study estimated that approximately 10% of Ontario’s natural gas demand or 115 PJ of energy, could be generated by processing biomass wastes into RNG. The development of RNG from biomass wastes represents a real opportunity for the Ontario forestry sector to innovate, become more competitive, and play an even greater role in decarbonizing North American and international energy sectors.

Recent projects have successfully demonstrated production of RNG from wood wastes and a growing interest in converting biomass power plants into RNG production facilities. Examples of these projects include the GoBiGas facility located in Gothenburg Sweden, which is the largest commercial-scale demonstration of wood to RNG technology and processes approximately 55,000 tonnes of wood waste into 600,000 GJ of RNG annually. This amount of RNG provides enough energy to heat over 6,000 homes. Canada is also home to innovative technology developers, like British Columbia-based G4 Insights, that can convert biomass waste into RNG. In 2019, G4 Insights successfully demonstrated their pilot-scale system that produced wood-based RNG and injected into the natural gas distribution grid in Alberta . Enbridge also sees the potential conversion of Ontario’s biomass power plants into RNG production facilities as an opportunity to evolve Ontario’s electrical grid and decarbonize heating, transportation and industrial sectors through the use of wood-based RNG. Enbridge suggests that Ontario perform a similar study to that commissioned by the California Air Resources Board that examined how California biomass power plants nearing the end of their power purchase agreements could be retrofitting into RNG production facilities.

The direct use of forestry and wood waste to provide heating, or combined heating and power to northern and remote communities represents a cost-effective means of reducing reliance on more carbon intensive fuels such as diesel and propane. However, supplies of wood are likely to far exceed local energy demands. The ability to produce and transport wood-based RNG as either compressed or liquified natural gas (R-CNG/R-LNG) creates a significant economic development opportunity where northern and remote communities may now have access to and supply more energy intensive markets and regions.

As the MNRF looks to execute its Forest Sector Strategy by redesigning its business support programs, Enbridge encourages the eligibility of wood-based RNG development projects within these programs as a means of achieving its innovation and market development goals.

Conclusion

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Ontario’s Draft Forest Sector Strategy. Enbridge supports the MNRF’s Draft Forest Sector Strategy and would welcome the opportunity to meet to discuss the role wood-based RNG and Enbridge may play in helping the Ontario government achieve its goals.