Creating electricity out of organic waste

Photo: Contributed

Harvest Energy Garden

A Kelowna company has received national recognition.

Maple Reinders were recipients of the annual Canadian Construction Association (CCA) National Awards Program in the Environmental category, for their innovative Harvest Energy Garden project.  

In addition, KPMG has named the project one of the Top 100 Infrastructure Projects in the World. 

The first of its kind in North America, The Harvest Energy Garden in Richmond is able to convert organic waste into electricity.  Using commercial and residential kitchen scraps and yard waste the facility will generate enough energy to power 900 homes and also provide high-quality compost for local farms and gardens.

It utilizes an innovative High Solids Anaerobic Digestion (HSAD) technology to process solid waste material first into biogas, and subsequently into electricity generation (energy outputs of up to 20Mwh per day), and finally as high quality compost.  

The economic, social and environmental benefits of the Energy Garden are enormous.

Annually, the facility will continue to reduce carbon emissions of approximately 23,000 tonnes of C02 while generating both reusable products and renewable energy for local markets; and will process more than 30,000 tonnes of food scraps and yard trimmings diverted from British Columbia landfill sites.

“Maple Reinders was honoured with this award because of their dedication to enhancing and improving environmental performance in its projects. CCA is proud to recognize Maple Reinders as the recipient of the CCA Environmental Achievement Award.”, says Bob Hildebrand of the CCA. 

The Environmental Achievement Award was created in 1991, and recognizes the leadership role that CCA member firms and associations have taken to promote and undertake exemplary environmental conduct within the Canadian construction industry.

“We are delighted to be recognized nationally, as well as internationally, for this unique project.  Working with our partners, Gicon engineering in Germany and Harvest Power in Boston, enabled us to create exceptional results in the development of this cutting edge facility.“  Bodo Papke, Kelowna-based Division Manager of BC Operations. 

“Being the first project of its kind in North America our team in British Columbia managed the unique challenges that arose and provided viable solutions while maintaining budget and schedule.  We believe that this project will act as a springboard, with this sustainability model being adopted throughout the rest of Canada and into the United States.”  Mike Reinders, President & COO Maple Reinders Group.

Maple Reinders was honored at the Canadian Construction Awards ceremony on March 11 at the CCA Annual Conference in Panama City, Panama.