Welcome to the Wood Pellet Association of Canada’s Summer 2025 newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading it and we welcome your feedback.
THE HEADLINES
We are pleased to announce that the speaker line-up is finalized for the WPAC Annual Conference September 23-24, 2025.
As the world moves toward a low-carbon future, biomass and wood pellets play a key role in ensuring Canada has renewable and responsible energy. Join us for Biomass for a Low-Carbon Future to explore the numerous opportunities biomass presents.
This past May, the Wood Pellet Association of Canada (WPAC) team participated in the 2025 BioInnovAsia Conference in Tokyo, a major gathering of international biomass stakeholders that continues to grow in scale and influence. The event underscored the shifting landscape—one where biomass is gaining recognition not only as a renewable energy source, but as a vital tool in decarbonizing some of the world’s toughest sectors.
I am very pleased to share that Dr. Fahimeh Yazdan Panah has been promoted to Associate Executive Director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada (WPAC).
Since joining WPAC in 2019 as our Director of Research and Technical Development, Fahimeh has been a driving force behind many of our most important initiatives. She has partnered closely with me in shaping and implementing WPAC’s commercial strategy, strengthening our industry’s position both in Canada and internationally. She has led technical and policy discussions with governments, guided industry‑led research in pellet production, safety, emissions, and sustainability, and helped align Canada’s pellet sector with global certification and carbon accounting standards.
Transforming wood waste into versatile wood pellets makes sense for Canada’s forest industry, the local and national economy and a world that needs clean, dependable energy.
It’s been a busy time delivering news about biomass energy. In May, I represented the Wood Pellet Association of Canada at the Energizing Efficiency conference held in Fredericton, New Brunswick, delivered the webinar Driving Decarbonization and Cost Savings with Bio-heat during Bioheat Week and was a featured guest on the Reimagined Energy podcast.
Fahimeh Yazdan Panah, Director of Research and Technical Development with WPAC, attended Biomass Innovations Asia 2025 in Tokyo, Japan in May 2025.
British Columbia’s Chief Forester, Shane Berg, spoke at the conference on BC’s sustainable forest management practices, reinforcing Canada’s credibility and leadership.
Efficient wood pellet boilers help two New Brunswick churches curb heating costs.
In Northwestern New Brunswick, two Roman Catholic churches, Très Saint-Sacrement in Saint-Quentin and Notre-Dame-des-Prodiges in Kedgwick, faced with rising energy costs, decided to shop local for their heating needs. The churches invested in heating systems fueled by sawmill residues converted into wood pellets at the Group Savoie pellet mill just a few kilometres away.
SAFETY FIRST FOCUS
The Wood Pellet Association of Canada, FutureMetrics and Ørsted are hosting a half-day BECCS tour and a one-day workshop—Safe Wood Pellet Storage: Preventing, Detecting, and Managing Self-Heating Incidents in Copenhagen, Denmark, September 2-3, 2025.
September 2 – Afternoon Tour of Ørsted BECCS Project: Asnæs Power Plant
Ørsted will take attendees on a tour of Asnæs Power Plant one of its Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) projects.
September 3 – All Day Workshop & Ørsted-hosted Dinner
During the one-day workshop, we will discuss the risks, detection, and prevention of self-heating incidents in wood pellet storage. This workshop will provide insights into major incidents, technical causes, risk mitigation strategies, and emergency response procedures, helping professionals enhance safety standards across storage facilities. The workshop will be followed by an Ørsted-hosted dinner for everyone to network.
View the agenda and register now!
Congratulations to Ted Brown, Site Trainer at Drax Entwistle in Alberta, the Wood Pellet Association of Canada’s latest safety hero. He always endeavours to ensure that safety is the top priority.
Ted stepped into the newly established Site Trainer position in October 2024 and hit the ground running, enhancing training at the facility. He updates all onboarding and training documents and supports Drax’s 30-60-90 day check-in process for new hires.
The Wood Pellet Association of Canada proudly announces its latest Safety Hero: Brett Wickstrom, Maintenance Lead Hand from Drax Meadowbank in British Columbia. Brett’s outstanding contributions make the workplace safer for his colleagues.
Brett is a great leader who ensures safety is the number one priority before any work is started. He always ensures staff and contractors are wearing proper PPE, and if they don’t have something they need, he will stop what he is doing and get it for them.
PARTNER NEWS
Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation News Release
Williams Lake, B.C.: Tsi Del Del Enterprises Ltd., a venture of the Tŝideldel First Nation, joins returning companies Peters Contract Logging, Freya Logging and Integrated Operations Group to be featured in Season 2 of the television series Timber Titans, a gripping documentary that takes audiences deep into the heart of British Columbia’s (B.C.) forest industry. Launching August 12, 2025, the new season showcases the hard work, innovation, and resilience of four forestry operations across B.C., including Tsi Del Del Enterprises Ltd. and their role in rehabilitating fire-impacted forests in the Cariboo Chilcotin region.
Elimini Press Release
Copenhagen, Denmark – [28 July, 2025] – Elimini, a carbon removal expert with a mission to remove carbon for good, has signed a joint development agreement with Greater Copenhagen’s public utility HOFOR to explore the development of a large-scale bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) facility at the Amagerværket combined heat and power plant in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The strategic collaboration will cover the development of the BECCS facility, with the aim of entering into a Joint Venture Agreement to transform Unit 4 (AMV4) at the site to capture CO2 and generate high-quality, verified carbon removal credits (CDRs) in addition to renewable electricity and heat.
EN Plus News Release
After undergoing an evaluation process, the ENplus® certification scheme has successfully passed the acceptance verification for accreditation by the European Cooperation for Accreditation (EA) according to the requirements set out in the document EA 1/22 A-AB 2023 “EA procedure and criteria for the evaluation of conformity assessment schemes by EA accreditation body members”. ENplus® is now the only wood pellet quality certification on the market to receive such recognition.
Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation News Release
Williams Lake, B.C.: Along Palmer Lake Road in the Cariboo Chilcotin, about one and a half hours west of Williams Lake, a new chapter in the life of the forest is unfolding. Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation Ltd. is applying the hard-earned lessons of its Pressy Lake pilot project to another large-scale treatment area. This effort is already making a visible difference not only in forest health, but also economically and environmentally, with the enhanced recovery of burned wood fibre to mitigate the risk of future wildfires. This project is supported through funding from Natural Resources Canada’s Build and Mobilize Foundational Wildland Fire Knowledge Program.
The project in Palmer, or Palmer Project, is addressing two key challenges that arose after the devastating 2017 wildfires: extreme fuel loading of dead, mature trees and excessive natural regeneration of new trees, which will further result in the area being ripe for another catastrophic wildfire in the future. In some areas, over 100,000 pine seedlings are sprouting per hectare, far too many for a healthy, productive forest to thrive.
Read the News Release.