ENTWISTLE, B.C. – A green energy company is facing regulatory charges for an industrial wood pellet plant explosion that injured workers.
Pinnacle Renewable Energy announced it was informed that Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) has laid regulatory charges following their investigation of an explosion at the company’s plant in Entwistle, Alta. on Feb. 11, 2019.
Six employees and six contractors were injured in the incident.
“The health and safety of our employees and contractors has always been an essential core value of our company and our business strategy,” said Pinnacle’s CEO Duncan Davies in a press release. “We regret the impact of this incident on those who were injured, their co-workers and the Entwistle community.”
Pinnacle stated it completely co-operated with the province’s investigation into what caused the explosion and continues to implement advances in equipment design and systems to ensure safe operations at Entwistle and across all of its facilities.
Pinnacle stated it has not yet received any details about the charges from the province.
The company is the world’s second largest producer of industrial wood pellets which are used in lieu of fossil fuels in the production of baseload electrical power. It operates nine production facilities in Western Canada and one in Alabama, with one additional facility under construction in Alabama.
It wasn’t the first explosion at a Pinnacle plant. The company’s Burns Lake facility in B.C. experienced an explosion and fire in 2014 that injured three.
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