Ontario Northland showed off some unique green energy technology at the Bus Depot at 100 Station Road.
The ONR has partnered with Union Gas, Envoy Energy, WSP, and Change Energy to conduct a feasibility study on one of its motor coaches which are running on compressed natural gas.
Chris Minor, the Northeast District Manager from Union Gas, says his company is providing the infrastructure for this summer pilot project which brings with it a number of benefits.
“One is the noise reduction of the engine to go from a diesel to compressed natural gas,” stated Minor.
“The second which really is the first is the emissions which are reduced by 20% and the final is a cost benefit because it is a 0.30 to 0.40 cent savings over diesel.”
Corina Moore, CEO of Ontario Northland says this is an example of the company trying to move forward with more green initiatives.
“Obviously transportation by bus and rail is already very green and reduces the environmental impact but the fact that we could be the first in the province and in Canada as a regional transportation provider is really lifting ourselves as a transportation leader and what we want to say about Ontario Northland, so it’s significant for us,” said Moore.
“We are looking at the environmental side which has a certain amount of emissions that are reduced but also on the bottom line for the conversations we’ve had with WSB and Union Gas, we are looking at a 20% to 30% potential reduction in our fuel costs rolling out with CNG so that will be the data that we will gather over the next month.”
Moore says if this pilot project goes well they will try and move forward and gather more information about using compressed natural gas during the much colder winter months in northern Ontario.
“We are moving forward with a feasibility study which will look at CNG versus some other alternatives and then in the winter if this pilot goes the way we want it to go then we will set up another pilot in the winter because compressed natural gas acts very different in the winter and certainly with the climate change from Hearst to Toronto in one day we have to make sure we see what the requirements are for feeling stations, how far we can go on a tank and what that whole thing looks like because there will need to be a rollout of fuelling stations as well and potentially what leadership we play in this as well,” said Moore.
Union gas is also setting up a temporary re-fuelling station on Wallace Road.
“Right now here in North Bay, if we were to get a full-time refueling station it would allow other businesses, potentially the municipality, our own fleet at Union Gas to convert their vehicles to CNG,” said Minor.
