Startup costs stall biodigester project

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

by BRIAN LOCKHART

Machabee Farm Foods’ plans to build a deadstock biodigester in St. Albert Ontario are being mired in hefty start up costs including a $900,000 quote by Ontario Power Generation to connect the facility to the power grid.

The company raised $4 million for the project and sought the remaining $2 million in funding from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). The project’s $6 million price tag includes costs of connecting to the grid.

“They provide, in our view, an essential service,” says Mary McCuaig CAO of Nation Township of Machabee’s, noting the area is “primarily rural farmland.”

The town provided OMAFRA with a brief detailing the need for such a plant after the application for partial funding of the project was turned down.

McCuaig says Machabee is still trying to secure financing for the project but will not proceed until it is found.

Neither company spokesperson Guy Machabee nor an OMAFRA spokesperson could be immediately reached for comment.

The company operates five related businesses in eastern Ontario.

If constructed the biodigester would create 20 new jobs in the area. BF