Wind blows out of Holberg wind energy project
North Island wind farm project axed
Andrew Duffy, Times Colonist, 26 Jul 2005
Harvesting the wind
Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun, 26 Jul 2005
Green power idea has blown away
Les Leyne, Times Colonist, 27 Jul 2005
Vaughn Palmer on CKNW, 28 Jul 2005
COMMENT: The Holberg project was the first, and still the only, wind energy project to obtain a supply agreement with BC Hydro. At the time of the call, BC Hydro rejected other wind proposals, but accepted the Stothert project. Why? Win Stothert, the owner of the company, had no track record in wind energy development, any more than did Sea Breeze Power, for example. And many informed observers were concerned that BC Hydro's price cap of 5.5 cents a kilowatt hour was too low to be viable.
And that's proven to be the case. The combination of the wind resource - according to the comments in these news items, somewhere between okay, but not great, to inadequate. - and the price, has only now been discovered to not be viable.
But is that the whole story? Stothert collapsed his engineering business about the same time. Retiring, sort of. There was never any sense that anyone connected with the Holberg project was much excited about it. And Stothert, was and remains, Chairman of the Board of Hillsborough Resources, owners of the Quinsam Mine in Campbell River, as well as other coal properties, and proponent for a coal-fired generation plant to be built at the Quinsam Mine.
North Island wind farm project axed
Andrew A. Duffy
Times Colonist
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
The energy purchase agreement between B.C. Hydro and Holberg Wind Energy has been cast into the wind.
What was to be the first wind-farm project to supply Hydro with power was cancelled by the project's proponents because the wind supply was not reliable. "In 2002 a meteorologist predicted we'd have a strong energy source west of Holberg toward Cape Scott ... and on that basis we bid for a 20-year power sale agreement with Hydro," said Win Stothert of Stothert Power Corp, one of the partners in Holberg along with Global Renewable Energy Partners.
Stothert said subsequent tests and a recent six-month study have shown the wind power in the area "is not as sound as had been predicted."
That news coupled with rising construction costs brought on by the price of steel doubling over the last year forced the company to walk away.
The company and Hydro had agreed on 58.5 megawatts of wind capacity to be developed on Vancouver Island via the $100 million Holberg Wind Energy proposal -- 37 to 45 wind turbines on the northern tip of the Island, 60 kilometres west of Port Hardy.
While neither Holberg nor Hydro would discuss the price agreed to per megawatt hour, Hydro was paying a $5 per megawatt hour green credit on top of the rate. "It's obviously disappointing, we'd like to see a varied resource mix," said Hydro spokeswoman Elisha Moreno.
The capacity produced was expected to be able to power 17,000 households and was to be transmitted over lines connecting to the grid at a Port Hardy substation.
Harvesting the wind
Scott Simpson
Vancouver Sun
26-Jul-2005
Proponents of the first wind power facility ever approved by BC Hydro have withdrawn their plans.
Developers of the Holberg wind energy project would have situated a $90 million facility producing 58 megawatts, enough to power 17,000 homes, on a remote inlet 45 kilometres west of Port Hardy on Vancouver Island.
Premier Gordon Campbell announced in September 2003 that Holberg had been selected as part of an estimated $800 million in new private-sector electricity generation projects in British Columbia.
Proponent Win Stothert followed up the premier's comments by saying that B.C.'s potential for wind power was "tremendous."
But in an interview on Monday, Stothert said extensive testing had indicated that the Holberg site was not as productive as initial studies by BC Hydro had suggested.
Stothert said the site was productive but could not be cost-effective without the same economic benefits that Hydro has offered to companies producing so-called 'firm' electricity -- as opposed to the intermittent supply that can be derived from weather-dependent wind power.
"It turns out that although we have a relatively favourable wind resource there, it's not good enough for the price we were able to get from BC Hydro for our electricity," Stothert said.
The project has always had some financial question marks attached -- Hydro had contracted to pay $55 per megawatt for the energy, which is comparable to what a B.C. homeowner pays to keep the lights burning.
But it was an amount that Stothert acknowledged was less than the cost-per-megawatt to actually produce electricity at the wind farm.
Green power idea has blown away
Les Leyne
Times Colonist
July 27, 2005
A lack of raw material -- wind -- has scuttled the Holberg proposal
Maybe it's not a clanging alarm bell, but the cancellation of a small power proposal on northern Vancouver Island seems to raise a warning flag.
We've been repeatedly assured there was no need for a great big gas-burning generating plant at Duke Point, because the opportunities for alternative energy sources are so rife.
So what happens to one of those alternative proposals -- a wind farm -- that made it through the approval process and had a signed, sealed and delivered contract with B.C. Hydro? It was quietly abandoned a few weeks ago -- because there isn't enough wind.
It's not that big a deal. The fate of the Island doesn't hang in the balance. But Stothert Power's decision to walk away from its project near Holberg -- at some considerable expense -- is a quiet illustration of the unexpected difficulties that can crop up in the on-going exploration of alternatives to conventional electricity production.
It was considered a fairly big deal last year when the Vancouver-based firm signed a deal with B.C. Hydro. The company planned to erect a few dozen wind turbines on a remote ridge, based on preliminary assessments that showed the spot was a viable generating site. They would have produced about 58 megawatts of power -- enough for about 17,000 homes, but a pittance in the grand scheme of things.
More important, they would have been the first wind-power generators in B.C. Stothert, with some international partners, had a 20-year contract under which B.C. Hydro agreed to buy all the electricity the turbines produced. That energy purchase agreement is the keystone to all the alternative projects that are now on the drawing board.
It's what proponents can take to the financiers and show as a secure long-term source of revenue.
But even with that document in hand, Win Stothert found his firm couldn't make a go of it. B.C. Hydro did an early assessment and found the site viable. A meteorologist hired by the company three years ago looked deeper into it and determined it still looked promising. But Stothert said this week that after erecting five measuring devices and collecting data for about six months, they found the winds were favourable, but not favourable enough.
Combined with a 30-per-cent hike in the project's multi-million dollar budget brought on by a doubling in the price of steel, it was enough to stop the project in its tracks -- for the time being.
B.C. Hydro is shrugging off the cancellation. The Holberg project was only one of 17 new ventures it agreed to last year, and the only wind farm in the mix. Some attrition was expected. The utility is expected to open another call for proposals this fall and has rejigged the process so that people pitching concepts have to be further along in proving their viability.
And there are still some wind-power advocates keenly interested in getting into the game. Despite the Holberg findings, there are studies showing B.C. has enormous potential when it comes to wind turbines.
There are some audacious -- and outlandishly expensive -- schemes to build them offshore in the Queen Charlottes. There's a large-scale proposal right around the corner from Stothert's site, although it didn't make it in Hydro's first round of buys.
And there are very promising sites in the Peace River country, including one right on top of the Bennett Dam, which has kept many of the lights on in B.C. for the past 40 years.
Maybe they will prove out and start spinning soon. Maybe the old undersea transmission lines that now supply most of the Island's needs will be replaced on schedule, and everything will be fine. Maybe some of the other green power proposals will be up and running soon enough to avert any problems. Maybe tidal power will save the day.
But on post-Duke Point Vancouver Island, one of the initial baby steps toward green self-sufficiency in electrical power has turned out to be a faltering one. It's just not as easy as the theorists make it out to be.
Just So You Know: One bit of good news: The independent power producers and B.C. Hydro are back on speaking terms.
The association representing all the private firms interested in supplying power sent B.C. Hydro a rocket a few weeks ago -- detailed earlier here -- complaining about the generally shoddy treatment they were getting, citing Duke Point as a prime example. (That's where Hydro put the operation of the big proposed plant out to bid, picked a winner, signed a contract, and then cancelled the deal at the last minute, citing concerns about the length of time court appeals were taking.)
Producers demanded a meeting to air their grievances. They got the meeting and apparently cleared at least some of the air, although as the Holberg case shows, it's often hard to know which way the wind is blowing.
Vaughn Palmer on CKNW
Vaughn Palmer
CKNW
28 Jul 2005
VAUGHN PALMER says the cancellation of a wind power project on Vancouver
Island was 'a bit of a shock' and a reminder that in the drive for green
power in BC we still have a long way to go.