Wind farm will sell power to B.C. Hydro

Times Colonist (Victoria)
Judith Lavoie
02-Nov-2004

The first wind-farm project in B.C. to be given a contract to sell power to B.C. Hydro has got the environmental go-ahead from the province.

The $100 million Holberg Wind Energy proposal, which envisages 37 to 45 wind turbines on the northern tip of Vancouver Island -- 60 kilometres west of Port Hardy -- could be providing power to B.C. Hydro by 2006, Dan Allard, president of Stothert Power Corp., said Monday.

Stothert, a Vancouver-based company, and Global Renewable Energy Partners Inc., a Danish-U.S. company, are partners in Holberg Wind Energy GP Inc.

Sea Breeze Energy Inc., was previously given environmental approval for a wind farm in the same area, but does not yet have a customer for the power or access to transmission lines.

Holberg has a 20-year contract with Hydro to take all the electricity it produces, which will probably be enough to power at least 17,000 households. The power will be transmitted over lines connecting to the grid at a Port Hardy substation.

"We hope to start construction after the wind studies are done in the spring and it will take between 12 and 18 months," Allard said.

The wind farm will mean about six permanent jobs for local residents and, during construction, there will be an estimated 100 person years of work, he said. "It's a big construction effort and then we'll be training people to operate the plant and do things like maintenance," he said. The turbines will be in an area which is not heavily populated and will not be visible from most of the water, Allard said.

The windmills are about 80 metres tall and blades are 40 metres wide and are more bird-friendly than the older lattice turbines, he said.

Both federal and provincial governments have concluded the project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.

Wind power remains more expensive to produce than hydro power, partly because the turbines are likely to be working for only about 35 per cent of the time. But Holberg will probably qualify for new federal money, amounting to one cent for every kilowatt hour, from the Wind Power Production Initiative.

"They cost a lot to build, but they don't cost much to operate and the fuel is free," Allard said.

The company has options on other land in the Holberg area and elsewhere in B.C., he said.

Energy and Mines Minister Richard Neufeld said there have been some teething problems as the province considered wind power projects.

"B.C. Hydro doesn't have experience with wind power and it's new for B.C. folks . . . They've all worked together very hard to make it work and we're pretty proud this is taking place," he said.

Hydro has another proposal call next May and it is likely other wind power proponents will step up to the plate, Neufeld said.

Sea Breeze was not selected to provide power for B.C. Hydro because it bid on the Vancouver Island proposal call, rather than the general proposal call, and Vancouver Island needs 24-hour capacity, which Sea Breeze could not provide, he said.

Paul Manson, Sea Breeze president, said the company is planning to go ahead with its project even though B.C. Hydro does not appear to be interested.

"There's a desperate need for this emission-free energy . . . We are about to see an explosive growth in the amount of wind energy being produced in Canada and B.C. is being left behind for reasons we don't understand," he said.

The company is looking at U.S. customers and, because of difficulty in gaining access to transmission lines, has applied for a cable to run from Victoria to Port Angeles, Manson said.

The province's energy plan says that 50 per cent of the province's new electricity should come from green projects such as wind power, small, run-of-the-river hydro projects or biomass energy, such as burning wood residue from sawmills.

Mark Jaccard, a Simon Fraser University ecological economist, said it is difficult for wind power to compete with other energy sources because most places in the province do not have a steady wind, but do have plentiful supplies of water running downhill.

However, there are locations where it would work, he said.

"I am not saying wind is uncompetitive, I am saying it has challenges," he said. "It appears as if the Holberg project has cleared many of the hurdles. It is extremely important that Hydro has accepted this."

jlavoie@tc.canwest.com