Pinnacle Pellet eyes potential for future expansion of Westview Terminal

Pinnacle Renewable Energy is nearing maximum capacity
for the current terminal facility at Westview and is 
giving thought towards future expansion plans
(photo from Pinnacle energy website)

Earlier this week we made note of a recent achievement for the Pinnacle Renewable Energy Company, with the Richmond based company saluted by BC Business as the magazines Entrepreneur of the Year in the Business to Business category.

As part of the BC Business article, the potential growth for the company war outlined, with a major investment set for a production facility in Alberta.

That expansion and increased production at the other Pinnacle production facilities would seem to have the energy company considering an expansion plan, that could see the capacity for the Westview Terminal complex on the Prince Rupert waterfront double upon completion.

An article in the trade publication Biomass explores what those new plans might look like, as Vaughn Basset, Pinnacle's Senior Vice President of Sales and Logistics provides some observations for the magazine.

“With our new pellet factories and expansions coming online in the next few years, most product will be coming through Westview for export,”  ...  “It’s good for 1.2 million to 1.5 million tons now, but we’ll soon max out our Westview handling capacity. We would need to put in more rail handling capacity in the back end, and we might need to put in another silo. Nevertheless, we plan to increase capacity over time, and we could double what we have today.”

The article also provides some interesting background both on the early days of the development of
the current terminal, as well as a review of some of the features that are now part of the Westview terminal operations.

Though the VP's commentary doesn't dwell too deeply on the process that was involved in getting the terminal completed on the North Coast.

Nor is there much on the feedback of the time from those living on the west side of the city and some of the concerns related to the terminal of that period.

“We have a lease with the port authority on the land ... The terminal is serviced by Canadian National Railway. We have an agreement with CN, the port authority and the local First Nations Bands, too. It gets complicated here in our neck of the woods. It took maybe the better part of two years for all the paperwork to be sorted out to get the authority to proceed.”

The full article can be reviewed here see the final entry.

For more notes related to the Westview Terminal see our archive page here