| Energy ProducerIn addition to our core business of market pulp production, we produce significant quantities of renewable electricity, generating over 1.4 million MWh of electricity in 2009. In 2010 we will focus further on energy production and sales through an energy project at our Celgar mill in British Columbia, Canada. The Green Energy Project is an approximately C$55 million investment in the mill's power production capacity. Upon completion, the project is expected to permit Celgar to meet all of its energy requirements through self-generation and allow excess electricity to be sold to power utilities, resulting in zero net energy costs for Celgar and significant electricity sales revenue. In the fall of 2010, Celgar's new 48 MW turbine is expected to result initially in exports of up to 30 MW of surplus electricity in the summer and up to 25 MW in the winter. The mill already produces up to 7 MW of electricity for sale on any given day. This surplus energy is a by-product of pulp production, and there is opportunity with this new installation to achiever further incremental increases in electricity exports.
Approximately 45 per cent of the wood fed into the mill becomes kraft pulp. The remaining 55 per cent of the wood is converted to a biofuel known as black liquor, and is burned in our modern high pressure recovery boiler to make power. More specifically, lignin and hemi-cellulose are extracted from wood fiber, which becomes a source of fuel in boilers to make steam which in turn makes power. As a renewable resource, wood is considered carbon neutral and energy produced from wood is therefore labeled 'green' as opposed to the 'brown' energy produced from non-renewable coal, for example. The Celgar energy project is designed to increase production of green energy and optimize its power generation capacity.
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