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Canadian government and business leaders last week gathered near Lake Erie in southern Ontario for the grand opening of North Americas first GE-designed greenhouse cogeneration plant.
The plant is intended to generate more reliable onsite power and heat for commercial greenhouses and help the country reduce its emissions from energy production.
Great Northern Hydroponics, a division of Detroit-based Soave Enterprises, installed the 12-megawatt commercial greenhouse power plant at Soaves sprawling, 55-acre tomato greenhouse complex in Kingsville, Ontario.
The complex is located near Lake Eries north shore in the Leamington area, about 30 miles southeast of Detroit.
The high-efficiency onsite power plant, powered by four of GE Energys Jenbacher gas engine cogeneration modules, was among seven natural gas-fueled combined heat and power projects approved by the Ontario Power Authority in 2006 to showcase how advanced cogeneration technologies could help make industrial plants more energy independent, improve local grid reliability and support Canadas clean and renewable energy goals.
Surplus power from the greenhouse power plant is being sold to the local grid under a 20-year contract with the Ontario Power Authority. The plant supplies enough electricity to Ontarios transmission grid to power 12,000 to 15,000 Canadian homes annually.
In addition to generating power and heat to support greenhouse operations, the power plant also treats the gas engines exhaust, enabling CO2 from the exhaust to be recycled and applied as a special fertilizer to enhance greenhouse crop production.
Because CHP (combined heat and power) plants are inherently more energy efficient than separate systems to create electrical and thermal power, less fuel is consumed to produce the same amount of power. As a result, cogeneration can help to lower regional industrial emissions associated with energy production.
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