A co-generation plant helps power Village Farms International. Photograph By file
A large-scale East Ladner greenhouse hoping to cash in on the medical and recreational marijuana markets will get heat and power from a greener form of energy.
Delta council has approved amending a restrictive covenant for Village Farms International, located in the 4500-block of 80th Street, to extend the operation of a landfill gas co-generation facility, which was to end later this month but will now be permitted until Sept. 30, 2027.
In 2002, part of the property was rezoned to allow for the operation of a landfill gas co-generation facility operated by Maxim Power Corp.
In 2013, a different portion of the property was rezoned to allow for the operation of a second, more advanced landfill gas co-generation facility operated by Quadrogen Power Systems Inc. That second facility is a demonstration project designed to convert gas from the Vancouver Landfill into multiple streams, including power, heat, hydrogen, CO2, bio-methane, bio-diesel and wax. That project was to have ended later this month, according to the terms of the restrictive covenant.
A report to council notes the extension is required because the facility is not complete and therefore has not been operational due to delays with meeting government funding approval requirements and establishing necessary agreements with government agencies.
“The applicant expects the facility to be operational in the next one or two years, allowing eight to nine years to run as a pilot project, test the technology and additional time for hardware retrofits for optimization of the process,” the report explains.
What the civic report does not mention is the greenhouse could see its crops shift from peppers and cucumbers to marijuana.
Village Farms International announced this summer it has entered into a $20-million joint venture with Emerald Health Therapeutics, a B.C.-based licensed producer of medical cannabis, to cultivate and distribute wholesale cannabis and cannabis extracts for medical purposes.
Also, if permitted by law, the operation plans to grow pot for “non-therapeutic” purposes.
Village Farms is initially allocating 25 acres for cannabis production. The joint venture also outlines an option to lease or purchase an additional 85 acres.
The initial 1.1 million square feet of greenhouse cannabis production is estimated to yield more than 75,000 kilograms of product annually. Village Farms notes the joint venture has the potential to have up to 4.8 million square feet of greenhouse production, estimated to yield more than 300,000 kilograms of product annually, which the company says would supply a considerable portion of the expected future cannabis demand in Canada or for export abroad.
Health Canada still has to approve the medical marijuana application, while the venture could also be an enormous one for recreational marijuana production if the federal government follows through with plans to legalize pot next summer.
Business in Vancouver named Village Farms one of 2017’s fastest growing companies in B.C.
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