Institutional
UBC
Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility (BRDF)
A partnership between UBC, Nexterra Systems and General Electric (GE), the Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility is a $27-million project that uses new technology to create heat and electricity from clean, woody biomass such as wood chips and the “leftovers” from wood manufacturing plants. Built with major funding support from the Canadian and British Columbia governments, it is the first power plant of its kind in the world.
BRDF generates enough clean electricity to power 1,500 homes and supply up to 12 percent of UBC’s heat requirements. It reduces UBC's natural gas consumption by 12 percent and campus GHG's by 9 percent.
The BRDF has another groundbreaking feature: the walls, partitions, floors and roof decks of the power plant are made from cross-laminated timber or CLT, a value-added wood product. Being wood, the CLT panels have a low carbon footprint, and they are sourced from a renewable resource. The CLT panels used in BRDF are comprised of 90% pine beetle kill wood, which adds to the sustainability of the project.
AWARD: Winner of the International District Energy Association (IDEA) Award for Innovation, and The Infrastructure 100 Award
Client:
UBC
Statistics:
$27M. 15,000sf. Delivered using the CCDC2 stipulated price contract. Completed within budget.
Location
Canada
Year
2012