The University of British Columbia
OP-9: Clean and Renewable Energy

UBC’s Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility (BRDF) (http://energy.ubc.ca/projects/brdf/) contains an internal combustion engine with dual fuel capabilities (natural gas or clean biomass syngas from gasified wood waste). In the the year previous to the performance year (Fiscal year 2012/13), the engine consumed engine grade clean biomass syngas to produce 205MWh of electricity. When biomass syngas is unavailable, UBC uses Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), an accredited carbon neutral biofuel, to fuel the engine to provide 2.0MW of electricity, 1.4MW of steam, and 1MW of hot water for UBC’s District Energy System. The engine is currently operating on RNG and is on track to provide 5 per cent of UBC’s annual electricity consumption and reduce UBC’s electrical demand by 2MWe. UBC’s Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) has a 25-kilowatt peak photovoltaic system located on the fixed external sunshades of the facades and on the roof of the atrium.

UBC’s Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility (BRDF) (http://energy.ubc.ca/projects/brdf/) is a biomass gasification process that, under Thermal Mode, converts clean waste biomass into syngas that is used as fuel for the boiler to produce steam. The steam generated from the BRDF is connected to UBC’s district energy system and allows for a comparable reduction in steam produced by UBC’s natural gas fueled Powerhouse. Therefore, biomass is now displacing natural gas, whilst delivering the same amount of thermal energy for UBC’s campus heating requirements. The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) has 9 arrays of rooftop solar collectors that absorb heat from the sun which is transferred to the building’s domestic hot water preheat tank.

N/A

N/A

The UBC Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility (BRDF), completed in 2012, is the first demonstration of its kind in the world of a community-scale heat and power system fuelled by biomass. During UBC’s fiscal year 2013/14, the biomass gasification facility produced 15.3 per cent of the steam generated to serve UBC’s core and ancillary services, replacing natural gas at UBC’s main steam plant and reducing UBC’s GHG emissions by 10 per cent from 2007 levels. Furthermore, BC Hydro, which supplies electricity to the campus, acquires over 20 per cent of its power from renewable sources including wind, run-of-river and biomass plants. Over 75 per cent of BC Hydro's electricity is carbon-free energy generated by hydroelectric facilities. As a result, in their 2014 fiscal year, over 97 per cent of BC Hydro’s electricity generation was from Clean Energy. The environmental attributes are retained by BC Hydro.