From coal to wood thermoelectric energy production: A review and discussion of potential socio-economic impacts with implications for Northwestern Ontario, Canada

Abstract

The province of Ontario in Canada is the first North American jurisdiction with legislation in place to eliminate coal-fired thermoelectric production by the end of 2014. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) operates coal-fired stations in Ontario, with Atikokan Generating Station being the only facility slated to switch to 100% woody biomass. It is anticipated that this coal phase out policy will have socio-economic impacts. Because of these anticipated changes, in this paper, we review the current state of peer-reviewed literature relating to three burning scenarios (biomass, coal and co-firing) in order to explore the knowledge gaps with regard to socio-economic impacts and identify research needs which should elucidate the anticipated changes on a community level. We reviewed over 150 sources, which included peer-reviewed articles and non-peer-reviewed grey literature such as government documents, nongovernmental organization reports and news publications. We found very few peer-reviewed articles related to Canadian studies (even fewer for Ontario) which look at woody biomass burning for thermoelectric production. We identify a number of socio-economic impact assessment tools readily available and present potential criteria required in selecting an appropriate tool for the Ontario context. For any tool to provide meaningful results, we propose that appropriate and robust local data must be collected and analyzed. © 2013 Dampier et al.