About
GrowTEC
Grow the Energy Circle Ltd (GrowTEC) is a multi-faceted bioenergy founded by the Perry Family Farm that is a model of sustainable industry and innovative synergy. GrowTEC's vision focuses on the conversion of organic waste to clean energy, and the future explores symbiotic industrial integration and on-site development. The Growtec initiative demonstrates leadership for long term sustainable wealth creation and investment in Alberta’s future at a very replicable scale that can be distributed across the agricultural industry.
2014 - 2022 - Biogas / Renewable Energy Production Plant
GrowTEC’s Biogas plant converts large volumes of manure and organic waste into three value added by-products: biogas (~60% methane), heat and nutrient-rich / pathogen free soil amendments. Presently the biogas produced by the facility is converted into 100%, 24/7 renewable electricity and sold into the Alberta Electricity grid through AESO. GrowTEC produces nearly 3 times more electricity from organic waste than the entire Perry Farm operation consumes.
Value Adding Organic Waste as Feedstock– GrowTEC diverts over 10,000 MT of manure from direct land spreading and over 5000MT of other organic waste from landfill or land application each year. This is basically stealing the methane form the organics and leaving the nutrients for fertilizer.
Sale of Electrical Power– GrowTEC powers a 633KW/hr combined heat and power (CHP) unit that generates over 4000 MWhrs per year of electricity from organic waste each year since 2016.
Digestate Production and Sale – Digestate is to anaerobic digestion the same as compost is to aerobic digestion. The digestate is applied back to farmland reducing synthetic fertilizer requirements.
Sales of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission Credits – GrowTEC creates over 4,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent offsets for sale annually.
The innovative GrowTEC Perry Farm biogas facility demonstrates leadership in sustainable agricultural and industrial technologies, integrating agriculture and renewable, distributed energy.
Phases of our vision
2014 – 2022 Biogas / Renewable Energy Production Plant & Data Driven Agriculture
The numbers, annually
Organic waste processed ~ 15,000 tonnes /yr
Renewable Power generated > 4000 MWhr/yr
Organic Fertilizer produced ~15,000 tonnes /yr
CO2 e credits > 4000 tonnes/yr
Phase 2 – Site Integration and New Industry Development
Growtec’s longer term business strategy integrates local businesses and municipalities to generate a new, exciting, and diverse business cluster in the region. The following areas for development have been identified and are being pursued.
Sale of Direct Power to ICT Industry – The sale of renewable power directly to a local consumer (rather than through AESO and wholesalers) would be an improved and more efficient operational/business model for Growtec.
The power supply from Growtec’s plant would be ideal for a data center operator interested in a renewably powered IT plan. Growtec will have redundancy in power and redundant fiber optic accessibility (capitalizing on the under-utilized Alberta Supernet). Growtec therefore is an ideal location for a data center or similar super-computing management center.