Plutonic Power 'confident' of environmental approval
By Fiona Anderson
Vancouver Sun
19-Jan-2006
A Vancouver company is one step closer to providing "green power" to thousands of homes in B.C. with its application for an environmental-assessment certificate.
Plutonic Power Corp. applied for the certificate earlier this week for its East Toba River and Montrose Creek hydroelectric projects, located northwest of Pemberton. The projects are expected to produce 650 gigawatt-hours of electric power each year, enough electricity for 65,000 houses, Plutonic's director of corporate development Marc Stachiw said in an interview.
Those are just two of the 19 environmentally friendly projects Plutonic currently has planned, Stachiw said. All of the projects are "run-of-river" -- which diverts or "borrows" water from a river, diverts it so the water flows downhill through a generating station, and then returns the water to the river, he explained.
"So the advantage is you don't have any dams, you're not flooding any of the plains, and it's a very small environmental footprint," Stachiw said.
The East Toba and Montrose projects would be the first phase of the company's ambitious Green Power Corridor, a string of 12 hydroelectric projects in southwestern B.C. that would cost $1 billion, and would create 2,400 person-years of employment.
"[The Green Power Corridor] would be one of the largest private-sector energy projects built in B.C., if and when it is built," Stachiw said.
The Green Power Corridor, as well as Plutonic's other projects in B.C., could potentially generate 2,900 gigawatt hours of "green" electricity, enough to service almost 300,000 homes in the province.
The Environmental Assessment Office has 180 days to respond to Plutonic's application. Stachiw is optimistic the certificate will be granted.
"The nice thing about our projects is they have such a small environmental impact," he said. "The confidence level that we are going to get through the permitting process is very high."
This summer, Plutonic will be trying to secure contracts to sell the electricity from its East Toba and Montrose projects, as well as three other projects -- the Rainy River project on Howe Sound, and its Emory Creek and Garnet/Ruby Creek projects near Hope -- to BC Hydro, despite the fact that no electricity will actually be produced for at least two years, Stachiw said.
Long-term contracts with BC Hydro would enable Plutonic to raise the funding needed to go ahead with the projects. If successful in getting the contracts, Plutonic's Rainy River project -- which has a different environmental-approval process because of its smaller size -- would take about 12 to 18 months to be up and running. The East Toba and Montrose projects would likely take between 24 and 36 months, Stachiw said.
Stachiw believes Plutonic has a good chance of getting the BC Hydro contracts.
First, BC Hydro gives credit for green projects, he said. Second, Hydro likes reliable sources of electricity, and the East Toba and Montrose projects are reliant on rainwater, which is plentiful in southwestern B.C., especially in winter when electricity is in high demand, Stachiw said.
"A huge advantage of our projects is that over the long term everyone expects energy prices -- oil and natural gas -- to increase. These are all non-renewable resources," Stachiw said. "Whereas rainwater is renewable and [is] quite easy to forecast because we have such good hydrological records on these streams. So we can say to a degree of accuracy that we are going to produce this amount of electricity every year."
BC Hydro spokesman Ted Olynyk said Hydro provides a credit for projects it considers "green" -- such as run-of-river and wind power -- because long-term sustainability is one of its goals.
"Our purpose is to provide reliable power at low cost for generations to come but we are willing to pay a bit more for green processes because they are more sustainable," Olynyk said.
"We want to rank among the top 25 per cent of North American energy companies in terms of sustainability," he added.
Environmental Assessment Office review of
East Toba River Montrose Creek Hydroelectric project