Balfour Energy was developed as a means to provide the offtaker with cost-effective electricity relative to the Ontario electricity grid as well as reliable power quality, which was unavailable from the local distribution company.

Located on-site at a 10-acre greenhouse, the BEC combined heat-and-power (CHP) plant uses four 2.5 MW generator sets to supply enough electricity to power the entire facility. Heat is recovered from the CHP plant as a by-product in the form of hot water and is used to heat the greenhouse. Excess recovered heat is stored in a thermal storage tank. The CHP system allows the offtaker to offset 100% of the natural gas consumed in their existing boilers for heating

Envest has been providing energy to the offtaker since 2017. The CHP plant is owned and operated by Envest with our in-house operations and maintenance (O&M) team managing the day-to-day activities at the facility. A larger, permanent facility was commissioned in 2019, which has since achieved a 97% uptime.

BEC has solved the offtaker's challenge of sourcing reliable and cost-effective electricity through the use of best-in-class technology, engineering expertise and O&M capabiltiies. Feasibility engineering is currently underway to supply additional greenhouse loads with clean and reliable electricity from the Envest CHP plant.