The Broom Solution: If they give you lemons — make lemonade.
Broom is high in BTU energy, so the government can give broom chips a value of 10 cents per pound. Create buying stations at existing government weigh scales at location along the highways on Vancouver Island.
Hire existing chip trucks to move the chips to the co-generation plant at Campbell River.
Lease or joint venture the existing boilers at the Catalyst Mill in Campbell River.
This will create electricity from a renewable green energy source and create employment and create a new source of revenue for B.C. This could be cost neutral to the government. Payback is electricity and environment improvement.
Use part of the existing highways budget to fund this project instead of paying contractors to clear broom and growth from the highway right of ways. Contractors and/or individuals will do it for free and will pay to have the rights to clear the area’s as it will make money.
This will clean up the broom every year, create employment and create a new source of revenue for the province, as electricity has value. It is estimated that there is 800,000 to one million tons of existing broom and chipable growth along Vancouver Island highways.
Eight-hundred-thousand times $200 per ton — that’s a $160 million industry and a new source of renewable energy.
Nick Andreeff
Parksville