“Drying grain has become one of the most energy-intensive operations on the farm. It’s a significant cost to farming operations and in many cases is subject to carbon tax,” said Cam Cornelsen, co-owner of Triple Green Products.

Cornelsen spoke during Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association’s (ManSEA) online conference on March 30.

Triple Green Products, based in Morris, produces biomass-fuelled heating, composting and dehydrating systems used in mining, agriculture, industrial and other applications.

Lower drying costs and sidestepping the carbon tax make this system interesting to growers.

Triple Green has built biomass-fuelled drying systems for the mining industry for many years but about a year and a half ago, factors like the carbon tax pushed it to build something for farmers, said Lyall Wiebe, the company’s CEO, in an interview with the Co-operator.

“We saw a need to bring the system that’s been tried and true into the ag sector,” he said.

Triple Green’s BioDryAir unit hooks up with an existing air dryer with an air duct that directs heat, its website says. It’s fed fuel via a hopper and auger system. The system can burn corn stover, canola straw, wood pellets, oat pellets and other renewable fuels.

Cornelsen said burnable municipal waste may also be shredded and used as an energy source.

Triple Green did a case study on a farm in mid-north Saskatchewan, said Cornelsen. The farm produces just under 600,000 bushels of grain per year. It used a grain dryer with 17.4 mBTU max output hooked up to a BioDryAir unit.

Triple Green estimated that using fossil fuels, the farm would spend about $194,000 in 2021 on propane with an additional $18,000 on carbon tax. This would rise incrementally to reach about $232,000 in propane in 2030 and $78,000 on carbon tax.

Natural gas is cheaper than propane in that area. It estimated the farm would spend about $72,500 on natural gas in 2021 and about $15,500 on carbon tax. This would rise to $87,000 in gas and $66,000 in carbon tax in 2030.

On the same farm, Triple Green estimated they’d spend just over $8,000 on corn stover in 2021, rising to about $9,750 in 2030. It found that canola straw is more efficient and cost effective than corn stover. The most expensive biomass fuel it charted was oat pellets, which would cost the farm just over $22,000 for the year of 2021, rising to about $26,500 by 2030.

Depending on the size, BioDryAir units can cost between $160,000 and $500,000 said Wiebe. The company estimates farmers can expect a return on their investment in two to five years.

Wiebe said Triple Green heating units have proved to be durable and long lasting. As an example, he said one heating unit in a municipal building has been used year round for 10 years and has been shut down once for maintenance. Wiebe said the unit would not need major repairs for another decade.

Corn stover, straw, wood pellets, oat pellets and other renewable fuels are exempt from carbon taxes.

In early March, the federal government announced farmers could expect rebates on carbon tax paid on fuels used to dry grain.

Farmers in Manitoba have said carbon taxes on fuel for grain drying take a significant chunk out of their wallets, particularly after 2019’s ‘harvest from hell’ which saw a spike in grain drying.

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Manitoba has become a “very difficult place to sell and install solar,” Daniel Lacovetsky said during Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association’s (ManSEA) virtual conference on March 23.

Lacovetsky and business partner Jacob Kettner own Powertec Electric, a Winnipeg-based electrical company specializing in renewable energy sources.

Based on data from Energyhub.org, Manitoba ranks third among the provinces for best natural capacities for solar production — particularly in the southwest and south-central regions which score near the top of the site’s scale for potential solar energy generation.

“When you look at solar over its lifetime of 30 years, it produces some of the cheapest kilowatt hours you can get. Cheaper than hydro, cheaper than nuclear, cheaper than basically any source out there,” said Lacovetsky.

However, it seems Manitoba is no longer very friendly to solar installation.

Manitoba saw a boom in solar energy projects between 2016 and 2018 as Manitoba Hydro rolled out a rebate program that would pay one dollar per watt out of the cost of installation, up to 200 kilowatts.

By the end of 2016, Manitoba Hydro received 110 applications for the program, the Crown corporation reported.

“That was a very generous program. Pretty much the most generous program in the country,” said Lacovetsky.

It was probably too generous, he said, as it attracted contractors to the province seeking to capitalize on demand. When the program ended, some companies vanished and left customers without support, Lacovetsky said.

Though Manitoba still has some incentives for energy efficiency, Powertec installs most of its solar panels in Saskatchewan and Ontario.

This year Energyhub.org rated Manitoba as ninth among the provinces and territories on the relative feasibility of installing a solar power system. Lacovetsky argued the province should rank lower, below Saskatchewan (ranked 12) and Nunavut (ranked 10).

Saskatchewan buys back excess solar power for more than double the price Manitoba does, he said. Solar power there offsets natural gas power, while in Nunavut it offsets diesel-powered generation.

Manitoba ranks at the bottom of the list based on utility costs and connection policies, according to Energyhub.org. The site says Manitoba Hydro will pay just under three cents per kilowatt hour for excess solar power fed back into the grid.

This low buyback rate is the real struggle, said Lacovetsky.

Some provinces have a ‘net metering’ policy, which exchanges credits for any excess power the solar system generates, says Energyhub.org. It’s common to produce extra energy in the daytime or summer. A net metering policy credits the user for the excess, then uses the credits when the solar system can’t produce enough energy for the homeowner’s needs.

Lacovetsky said Manitoba would benefit from a policy like this.

Lower electricity prices in Manitoba also mean lower saving potential for switching to solar, the site says.

A solar installation in Manitoba can take 19 to 25 years to pay for itself, Lacovetsky said.

On the plus side, Manitoba Hydro has good financing options for solar, said Lacovetsky. He also held out hope that the province would instate a new solar incentive program soon.

Crown corporation Efficiency Manitoba has promised a permanent solar energy incentive program by 2022 or 2023, according to its three-year plan.

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Minnesota has become a leading U.S. state for its adoption of solar and other renewable energy sources, thanks to legislation and policies that set a goal of a quarter of its energy use coming from renewable energy by 2025.

“We made some great strides. We are at 25 per cent renewables right now,” Melissa Pawlisch, director with the University of Minnesota’s Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) told the Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association conference in Winnipeg earlier this month.

Interest in renewable energy was initially sparked by Minnesota’s farmers who wanted to establish small-scale ethanol plants and own wind farms, she said in her presentation.

Incentive programs led to both initiatives and a good deal of thought then put into where the wider community fits into the picture of renewables.

Now solar is what everyone in Minnesota is talking about. In 2013 Minnesota passed legislation requiring its largest utility Xcel Energy to develop and administer its Community Solar Garden Program and provide broader access for more Minnesotans to go solar.

A solar garden is a centrally located solar panel system people become subscribers and get the benefit of its production through a credit on their utility bill, said Pawlisch.

“The idea was that this would really democratize who can participate,” she said, noting that not everyone has the means nor space to put up solar panels.

A pilot program rolled out in December 2014 took everyone by surprise, she said. They expected there might be proposals for “maybe 10 or 20 megawatts of solar gardens.”

“Over 100 were proposed within the first week.”

Dedicated solar programs have since been established across the state, with residents now comprising the largest number of solar garden subscribers to the Xcel program.

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association 98,000 homes in Minnesota are powered by solar and 1.3 per cent of the state’s electricity is now generated by solar.

The other part of Minnesota’s renewable energy story is new jobs created. A recent report showed clean energy jobs growing at just over triple the rest of the market. Minnesota now has over 57,000 clean energy jobs.

CERTs job is work connecting people and communities to the resources they need to first identify and then implement community-scale clean energy projects.

“These need to be solutions that are everywhere, across audiences across industries… so that everyone can see themselves in that future,” she said.

Pawlisch was one of eight guest speakers attending the Future of Sustainable Energy in Manitoba meeting hosted by MANsea this month.

Other speakers included Robert Elms, spokesman for the Manitoba Electric Vehicle Association (MEVA), championing the use of some of the carbon tax to be collected in Manitoba to help build charger stations in this province and create incentives to purchase more electric vehicles.

MEVA estimates 19 stations could be installed at a cost of about $3 million. Right now 40 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in Manitoba is generated by the transportation sector, and most of that comes from private automobile usage.

Jeff Kraynyk, with the food and agri-product processing branch of Manitoba Agriculture pointed out that Manitoba’s energy imports are still approximately at $4 billion a year worth of fossil fuels.

“That’s all money leaving our economy and going to other jurisdictions,” he said in his presentation.

Kraynyk noted Manitoba’s capacity for producing biomass is growing, and now at over 100,000 tonnes of biomass annually. More growth is expected as more institutional users, which need to replace their aging boilers, look to biomass, accompanied by changes to the regulatory environment to accommodate these systems.

“The energy landscape in Manitoba is large,” he said during a later panel discussion.

“There is room for all renewables. There isn’t one technology that’s going to address this. This has to be an approach that embraces all technologies.”

Wayne Digby, MANsea director, said later in an interview the Minnesota experience shows what can happen when communities and groups of individuals are given the information they need to look at their energy needs and options and make choices.

MANsea continues to push for more domestic energy use and production, he said.

“Community-driven energy projects, we think, are the way to go,” said Digby.

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“Personally I think that we are just at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the utilization of renewable energy on the farm and that as we see Manitoba Hydro rates increase and the cost of renewable energy decrease there will be an increasing interest on the part of producers in looking at how they can incorporate renewable sources in meeting their energy needs,” says Digby, secretary treasurer of Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association (ManSEA).

The Brandon-based Digby’s connection to Manitoba’s agricultural lands is forever bonded via his well-respected professional career in Manitoba’s agriculture circles. In fact, while the makeup of the ManSEA board criss-crosses many areas of expertise in Manitoba’s renewable energy industries, there are strong agricultural roots on the board, including chair Wayne Clayton, a retired CFIA district veterinarian and current Keystone Agricultural Producer president Dan Mazier, who – along with ManSEA vice-chair Carl Cunningham – represent the Elton Energy Co-op on the ManSEA board.

• Read more: Hutterite colonies leading the masses with biomass heating

“The mission of ManSEA is to promote the use and production of renewable, sustainable and environmentally friendly sources of energy in Manitoba,” says Digby. “We want to enhance sustainable energy policy and programs in Manitoba, provide information on sustainable energy opportunities, encourage the development of community energy projects and encourage the development of sustainable energy educational opportunities within Manitoba schools.”

Digby says ManSEA holds an annual conference which focuses on various renewable energy opportunities and topics. The 2017 conference was held in Portage la Prairie and the keynote speaker lineup included Manitoba Agriculture’s Daryl Domitruk who addressed farm practicalities as part of a presentation he co-authored with Manitoba Agriculture’s Eric Liu and Matt Wiens titled “How do Agriculture and Renewable Energy Intersect on the Issue of GHG Emissions?”

“Practicalities of family farms include large output per unit labour due to mechanization and constant effort to max return of investment; must focus labour and capital on tasks directly affecting production and marketing; secondary tasks such as producing energy may be a challenge to incorporate,” Domitruk outlined in the presentation. “However, farms are very diverse and many are considering advanced approaches to energy supply.”

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Taxing carbon is meant to discourage emissions. But as “price-takers,” farmers fear taxing it will reduce their competitiveness and profits.

The Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) wants farmers exempted from paying a tax on carbon emitted directly from farm production, which would include emissions from burning fossil fuels, applying fertilizer, as well as methane from livestock and manure storage.

Somerset farmer Gerry Demare suggests farmers pay a carbon tax on their inputs, but collect it back as they do the Goods and Services Tax.

And some want to reject the tax altogether.

But under the Paris agreement to mitigate climate change, Canada agreed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 30 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030. To that end Ottawa says every province must have a $10-a-tonne price on carbon dioxide starting in 2018, rising $10 a year to $50 by 2022. The revenue will be the province’s.

The Manitoba government is consulting citizens and taking its time designing a made-in-Manitoba carbon price, but a lack of information has given rise to speculation, and from that, fears that may or may not be justified.

What is known is the climate is changing, Juliane Schaible, a senior economic development consultant with the Manitoba government’s Department of Sustainable Development, told the Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association’s (ManSEA) annual meeting here April 5.

Around 120 people interested in renewable energy attended.

“It is very real,” Schaible said. “It is happening now.

“A super-flood that past records would predict could happen once in 300 years has happened twice in five years with devastating results.”

Flooding cost Manitoba $1.2 billion in 2011.

But a carbon tax is just one of many tools to encourage society to emit less carbon, she added.

On average Manitobans emit 17 tonnes of greenhouse gases, annually, Schaible said, “which is amongst the highest per person in the world.”

While transportation is the top source of greenhouse gases in Manitoba, accounting for 39 per cent of the annual 21 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions, agriculture is a close second at 30 per cent.

Farm fuel alone accounts for three per cent of Manitoba’s total carbon emissions, Daryl Domitruk, Manitoba Agriculture’s director of research and market development said.

However, Manitoba only accounts for three per cent of Canada’s emissions, says a report prepared by the Ivey Business School at Western University. And Canada contributes just 1.6 per cent of the world’s emissions. Yet Canadians are among the highest emitters per capita.

Given Canada’s small share, some argue reducing emission won’t do much to mitigate climate change, which has been linked to rising carbon in the atmosphere. But the Pembina Institute says many other countries can make the same case. Moreover, while India emits more carbon than Canada, its per capita emissions are far lower.

“We are all in this together,” ManSEA’s chair Wayne Clayton said on the sidelines of his association’s meeting.

When challenges appear there are usually solutions in the form of new opportunities, he said. Given Ottawa’s decree, the question isn’t if there will be a carbon tax, but how to make it work, Clayton said. He wants the revenue invested to help people further cut carbon emissions.

Renewable fuels play a role in reducing carbon emissions, and in so doing, create new jobs and economic activity, he added.Farmers produce, and in some cases burn, biomass made from crop waste.

Farmers are looking at renewable fuels to save money, Domitruk said.

Forty Hutterite colonies have switched to biomass-fuelled boilers to replace coal.

“Here is the conundrum,” Domitruk said. “In the link between energy and greenhouse gas emissions, most emissions from ag are from (downstream) sources directly outside the farmer’s and rancher’s control. Farmers and ranchers can’t innovate and can’t adapt their way out of the fundamental processes that govern our agricultural ecosystems. We just can’t.”

Meanwhile, farmers are applying more nitrogen to increase crop production. But both manufacturing nitrogen and applying it produces greenhouse gases.

Using electrically powered hydrolysis to make nitrogen instead of natural gas can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it’s expensive, Domitruk said.

Soil scientists say farmers can reduce nitrogen-related emissions by applying the right type of nitrogen, at the right rate, in the right place, at the right time.

Farmers could use less manufactured nitrogen by producing more legumes — crops that make their own nitrogen, Domitruk said.

“But we’d have to move to a legume-based diet to do that,” he said. “That is technically possible but it is all a matter of consumer demand and behaviour.”

And there’s the rub. Cutting carbon emissions hinges on a lot of individual decisions.

“That is one of the biggest issues we face in fighting the climate crisis — the complacency of the general population,” said Curtis Hull with Winnipeg-based Climate Change Connections.

“The threats to our children and ourselves are just nebulous enough that it’s more important for me to get from where I am going a few seconds sooner than it it is for me to reduce the greenhouse gas burden on my children (by driving slower). And that is really something that needs to be taken into account,” he said sparking applause.

Eighty-five per cent of Canadians, including British Columbia residents, pay a carbon tax, Schaible said. Since B.C.’s carbon tax started in 2008 emissions there have dropped 5.5 per cent while the economy grew 12 per cent, she said.

A $10-a-tonne carbon tax will add 2.2 cents a litre to the price of regular gasoline and 1.9 cents to a cubic metre of natural gas in Manitoba, Schaible said. It’s estimated the tax will cost the average Manitoba household an extra 26 cents a day or $95 a year, but raise $100 million.

“Revenues can be invested in the best future we are prepared to envision for ourselves,” Schaible said. “Government wants to hear from Manitobans about actions you think are priorities. Frankly, this is a particularly difficult time for politicians because this is not ‘steady as she goes’ decision-making. Elected officials are wondering just how ambitious Manitobans want to be and there are always enormous pressures on budgets.”

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“We will need to look at minimizing soil disturbance, more plant diversity and keeping something growing on our land from snow to snow,” the Minto-area producer told the Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association (ManSEA) conference in Brandon Feb. 10.

Rourke said the improvement in soil health will reduce dependence on chemical applications and improve fertility and water retention.

As well as farming, Rourke operates AgQuest, a company that provides research in product and fertilizer efficiency, variety development and environmental trials.

Rourke’s presentation addressed climate change, agriculture’s contribution to the national carbon footprint and the need to prevent the 2 degree rise in global temperatures that has been predicted by climate scientists.

“Climate change is a serious global problem and it is getting worse. We are in a country where we have the opportunity to try and salvage what we can or we can continue as status quo and we will run into major problems,” Rourke said.

He said that over his 36 years in farming, he has seen the agriculture industry come a long way in reducing its environmental impact, and that he believes it can continue to be at the forefront of environmental stewardship.

“We have reduced tillage, implemented continuous cropping, diverse rotations; we have made energy-efficiency gains in tractors, trucks and combines, we use the four Rs in fertilizer practice to make those as efficient as we can, we have superior genetics, and a lot of our farms use precision placement,” Rourke said.

But despite the improvements there are still salinity problems, a decline in organic matter and many water-management problems.

“Regardless of the global climate change, I think we have issues we aren’t addressing. We are not storing enough water where it falls and that is causing erosion issues, flooding, and road wipeouts.”

Zero till not the answer

Rourke did his master’s degree on zero-till practices, but said after years of farming he has seen that zero till doesn’t hold all of the answers.

“We all scratch our heads because we thought that organic matter would increase as soon as we started zero tilling and problem solved,” said Rourke. “But, I believe this isn’t happening as quickly as we thought because we are not using enough of the growing season compared to what Mother Nature would have.”

Along with zero-till practices, Rourke says there is a need to have complete soil cover at all times of the year to promote microbial bacteria growth.

“In our system we are probably only using about 80 to 90 days of actual active growth and that doesn’t feed the soil microbes as long as it needs to. We are cutting the food supply off by about half,” he said.

Cover crops, companion crops, longer-season crops, and perennial crops, are the things that are what is going to make the difference in terms of soil organic matter, he suggested.

“Any time you don’t have plant growth, the soil goes backwards. We have a huge challenge and a huge opportunity to figure out how to use that entire growing season, from snow to snow.”

Rourke said pasturing livestock is an ideal way to increase soil’s organic matter because you can grow a cover crop for the full season, then graze until spring, never leaving the ground uncovered.

“We as producers have a choice right now. We can either go on this route that is not going to be good for our great-great-grandchildren, or we can make some changes,” Rourke said.

“As we move down this road, I think it offers us a new focus on soil health and I think that we need to keep our minds open and use every tool that we can. We will innovate with the best and I think there is opportunity to turn this around.”

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