Welcome to the Wood Pellet Association of Canada’s Spring 2025 newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading it and we welcome your feedback.
THE HEADLINES
As the world moves toward a low-carbon future, biomass and wood pellets have a key role in ensuring Canada has renewable and responsible energy. Join us to explore the many opportunities biomass presents, from lowering greenhouse gas emissions to supporting economic growth in the transition to a net-zero economy.
Join us in Halifax, Nova Scotia, September 23-24, 2025, for Canada’s largest gathering of the Canadian wood pellet industry. Each year, the event attracts hundreds of wood pellet, biomass, and bioenergy professionals from across the country, including the United States, Europe, and Asia, to discuss the issues impacting the industry here in Canada. The WPAC Conference is your opportunity to learn about the most important issues from industry experts around the globe.
Two new installations for Biomass Solutions Biomasse (BSB) at Kingsclear Tree Nursery and nearby Hanwell Park Academy school use low-carbon, locally sourced wood pellets to help reseed tomorrow’s forests and educate future community leaders in central New Brunswick.
“We’re helping to fuel the future… At the nursery, it’s the full cycle, growing trees and using waste wood to help them grow. At the school, we provide a low-carbon heat source for New Brunswick children who will need a society less dependent on non-renewable energy,” said Jonathan Levesque, BSB General Manager. “The potential of biomass to help our future in Canada is bigger than people imagine.”
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WPAC is making strides in international market engagement with the launch of a multi-lingual website and a targeted Japanese market awareness campaign.
Recognizing the importance of export markets—particularly in Asia, where Japan is Canada’s largest customer—WPAC’s website is now available in Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean. This initiative ensures that key international stakeholders can easily access information about the sustainability, quality and reliability of Canadian wood pellets.
The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) is working to adopt the European standard, EN 303-5:2002+A1:2023 Heating Boilers – Part 5: Heating boilers for solid fuels, manually and automatically stoked, nominal heat output of up to 500 kW as a National Standard of Canada anticipated by Fall 2026.
By CSA adopting EN 303-5, a standard used by 28 countries, Canada will be able to:
- Demonstrate to the standards-user community that this standard has been examined and endorsed by Canada’s top technical standards experts and found relevant to the economic growth of Canada’s emerging sectors.
- Support domestic and global trade as national standards adopted by Canada meet World Trade Organization obligations and trade agreements such as the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the Canadian Free Trade Agreement.
Forest Enhancement Society of BC News Release
On April 24, 2025, Minister of Forests, Ravi Parmar, shared details on newly funded forest enhancement projects throughout the province at the BC First Nations Forestry Council (FNFC) Conference in Penticton.
The announcement highlighted 64 projects receiving investments from the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) for wood waste utilization and wildfire risk reduction.
Gordon Murray, Executive Director of the WPAC, participated in the European Pellet Conference on March 5, 2025. He was on a panel to discuss whether pellets should be a partner or rival of other renewable energy options and the potential role of pellets in biorefineries and bioproducts.
Gordon Murray, Executive Director and Fahimeh Yazdan Panah, Director of Research and Technical Development with WPAC attended the annual Argus conference in London, April 1-3, 2025.
Fahimeh Yazdan Panah spoke on a panel: How Can you Fireproof your Feedstocks in Biomass Storage and Handling: A Guide.
Safety first focus
The Wood Pellet Association of Canada, FutureMetrics and Ørsted are hosting a one-day workshop—Safe Wood Pellet Storage: Preventing, Detecting, and Managing Self-Heating Incidents in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 3, 2025.
Join industry experts for a crucial discussion on the risks, detection, and prevention of self-heating incidents in wood pellet storage. This workshop will offer invaluable insights into major incidents, technical causes, risk mitigation strategies, and emergency response procedures, assisting professionals in enhancing safety standards across storage facilities.
Congratulations to Brian Fluter, Electrician at Drax High Level in Alberta, the latest Wood Pellet Association of Canada Safety Hero. Brian always strives to ensure the workplace is safe for his colleagues.
Since Brian joined the Drax High Level team in 2021, he has consistently demonstrated his safety leadership qualities by setting a strong example. He is a part of the Joint Health and Safety Committee, where his voice as a veteran employee is respected and heard.
Webinars You May Have Missed
Listen to Gordon Murray, WPAC’s Executive Director, as he speaks with Aspen Dudzic, the Alberta Forest Products Association’s Director of Communication. They discuss the role wood pellets can play in energy security, the bioeconomy, and much more.
Jonathan Levesque from Biomass Solution Biomasse discussed real-life success stories, such as a Maritime church that cut heating costs by over 50 percent, showcasing the economic and environmental benefits of bio-heat. Bio-heat alleviates grid pressure, supports remote and rural energy needs, and addresses industrial heating demands.
Hear how bio-heat can tackle Canada’s heating challenges while reducing emissions and costs. With rising energy prices and reliance on imported fossil fuels, bioheat presents a renewable, low-emission, and economically viable alternative.
Listen to Dr. Fahimeh Yazdan Panah, Director of Research and Technical Development with WPAC, who presented how Near-Infrared (NIR) technology, enhanced by AI, can revolutionize biomass feedstock sorting for the wood pellet industry.