On December 11^th, Minister Lecce announced the largest competitive energy procurement in Ontario’s history, expanding by 50% to meet soaring energy demand. Ontario’s procurement target has increased from 5,000MW to 7,500 MW to be contracted by 2029 and the government has provided direction to IESO to begin the second Long-Term Procurement (LT2), for which biogas facilities >1MW are eligible. Along with LT2, the minister asked the IESO to report back on a proposal to establish a Local Generation Program for smaller scale, distributed-connected generation which includes biogas! A full copy of the directive is here and the language copied below. This is terrific news and a result, in large part, to the efforts of this group and CBA members. The CBA has met with senior policy officials, Minister’s offices and the Premier’s Office expressing the missed opportunity of smaller, local generation facilities to contribute towards the ever growing energy demand in Ontario. Further, the CBA has been addressing procurement policy decisions within LT2 including Prime Agricultural Area limitations, Agricultural Impact Assessment studies, and rated criteria.

COP29 represents a defining moment for the biogas industry, with the treatment of food and organic waste for the first time being at the heart of a formal COP declaration. The COP29 Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste will require that national climate policies set concrete targets to reduce methane from waste and food systems, aligning with the 1.5°C goal. Signatories commit to launching concrete policies and roadmaps to meet these sectoral methane targets ahead of COP30 in Brazil. 30 countries, including Canada, representing 47% of global methane emissions from organic waste have signed the declaration, which should prove a gamechanger for sector growth and development.

Hydron Energy has signed a collaboration agreement with FortisBC to evaluate the feasibility of using Hydron Energy’s biogas upgrading equipment at locations in British Columbia, Canada — potentially improving costs related to renewable natural gas (RNG) purification. “The INTRUPTor™ solution recovers 99.8% of biomethane at targeted RNG purity. Our current mobile unit operating in Ontario provides significant capital and operational cost savings with 85% less carbon footprint. We are very pleased to be working with the FortisBC team to investigate delivering INTRUPTor commercial plants in B.C.,” said Hydron president and CEO Soheil Khiavi.