Merritt Green Energy Project (MGEP), the giant $230 million skeletal metal structure that sits just off Midday Valley Road in the southwest of town, will be up and running by July, according to Wayne Clarke, plant manager for Veolia North America.
“Construction is looking good, we’re looking at putting first fire in about the third week of July,” said Clarke.
About six months of commissioning and startup will commence, and the plant is expected to be operating around December.
“We’ve got a majority of the pieces all sitting here, everything is in place,” he said. “We’ve got good, qualified trades people here, and things are going very well.”
It is no accident that the project was placed within a stone’s throw to the Tolko mill. The plant’s boilers will create energy entirely from fuel harvested from waste from surrounding lumber operations.
The 40 megawatt plant will generate 285,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year — enough to power about 40,000 homes per year. A 30-year power-selling agreement with BC Hydro is in place.
