Stettler’s biogas project appears to have come to a halt due to the economic crisis which has gripped the industrial nations for more than a year.
First presented to Stettler town council in November 2008, the project was initially thought to be an ideal initiative to be jointly undertaken by the County of Stettler, Town of Stettler and Prairie BioGas, a company which had been relying on funding from an investment banking company in the U.S.
During that presentation, county councilor Joe Gendre and town councilor Dave Dennis, who together toured a biogas facility in Caroll, Ohio said it would be an ideal option to help solve the garbage problem.
But with the economy in doldrums, funding for projects, particularly those aimed at building capital assets is becoming increasingly hard to find.
“They lost their backing,” said Tim Fox, chief administrative officer for the county of Stettler. in reference to Prairie BioGas.
“Now it is a matter of trying to come up with funding to go forward with it and we are still trying to find options.”
“There are some grant options out there, but now budgets are also tight everywhere.”
“It is hard to get capital money,” said Fox adding that the county did not have enough resources to go on with the project on its own.
With the Town of Stettler having already adopted a regime of separating and recycling waste, the project has the potential to be operated at a low cost, thereby increasing savings for both the town and the county.
The project proposes to transform waste to gas and to produce heat and electricity for sale.