Thermal plant back on front burner
Andrew A. Duffy, Victoria Times-Colonist, 13-Apr-2006

Green power bids top list of proposals
Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun, 12-Apr-2006

BC Hydro receives bids from across BC in 2006 Open Call for Power

BC Hydro news release, 11-Apr-2006

Tender Submissions: F2006 Open Call for Power

Scott Simpson
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, April 13, 2006

Wind turbines will soon be spinning in British Columbia as a result of BC Hydro's latest call for new sources of power, a prominent energy group predicted on Wednesday.

B.C. Sustainable Energy Association president Guy Dauncey said six new proposals to build to build wind farms in northern B.C. suggest that one of the world's greenest energy sources will finally arrive in this province.

"We absolutely do expect that Hydro will accept some of the wind calls. We have good resources and it's a totally good technology," Dauncey said in an interview.

B.C. has taken heat in the past from environmental groups, and from wind farm proponents for the absence of wind power in a province that is overwhelmingly lit by hydroelectric power.

B.C. Energy Minister Richard Neufeld said the absence of wind power from B.C.'s energy grid is due in large part to an historic abundance of cheap, clean hydro power.

Other provinces such as Alberta, he noted, use wind to offset the environmental impacts of their overwhelming reliance on coal- and natural gas-fired generation.

Neufeld recently announced several incentives including crown land "rent holidays" to attract investment in a coastal province with some of the best wind resources on the continent.

Hydro announced earlier this week that three wind power proponents, presenting a total of six projects, answered the crown corporation's open call for new electricity sources.

Five are in Northeast B.C. while a sixth is at Prince Rupert.

Respondents also came forward with projects that would employ hydro dams and generators, run-of-river hydro, coal-fired generation, biomass burners and innovative projects to harvest energy from natural gas pipeline compressors.

A handful of companies have in the past indicated to Hydro an interest in developing wind resources but only one conformed to Hydro requirements -- it was accepted, but later withdrew its bid.

This time around, Dauncey noted, the proponents have the experience to manage the financial challenges of developing an energy source that has comparatively higher costs than other technologies.

"It's a mature technology and we are long overdue to be looking at it," Dauncey said. "B.C. is the only province in Canada that doesn't have any goals for wind energy. Personally I think we need to move away from the fixation that the only thing the public is concerned about is cheap power.

"When we buy shoes do we always buy just the cheapest shoes, or do we always just buy the cheapest food when we shop for groceries?"

One of the proponents, Aeolis Wind Power Corp., has already struck an agreement with a regional energy co-op and drawn enthusiastic support from the municipality of Dawson Creek, for a joint venture project on Bear Mountain.

The 120-megawatt Bear Mountain Wind Limited Partnership would install a 60-turbine wind farm on the mountain, at a cost of more than $200 million.

Arthur Caldicott, president of GSX Concerned Citizens Coalition, said his energy watchdog group is pleased to find that the great majority of proposals are for green power.

The Coalition was formed in opposition to Hydro's since-aborted plan for a gas-fired generating plant on Vancouver Island, and expects now to turn its attention to the emergence of two proposals for coal-fired generation.

Overall, however, Caldicott said the group is encouraged by the preponderance of projects that don't burn fossil fuels or accelerate global climate change.

"It's an interesting situation to find ourselves in, because we've been so critical of everything BC Hydro has done for so long," he said. "In this list of projects there isn't a lot, on the face of it, to criticize. Overall the picture is pretty good. They are mostly green."

ssimpson@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

TOP

B.C. Hydro eyes Gold River biomass generator as one of 53 proposals to
increase Island power

Andrew A. Duffy
Times Colonist
Thursday, April 13, 2006

Green Island Energy's plan to build a thermal generating power plant in Gold River has risen from the grave. The project is one of 53 submitted following B.C. Hydro's open call for power, issued in December.

Gold River had been pinning its hopes on Green Island Energy's plan to build a biomass-burning plant -- fuelled by wood, construction waste and pelleted garbage -- on the site of an abandoned pulp mill. The closure of the mill in 1999 put 300 people out of work. As a result, the village's annual budget was slashed to about $2 million from $6 million.

The plant, rumoured to cost $250 million to build and expected to employ 30 to 40 people in a town of just over 1,300, was not considered as an option for on-Island generation in a previous call for power. But it's back, along with 52 other projects from independent power producers that include wind power, run-of-river, waste heat and coal.

"We're really buoyed by the response, it's almost three times what our minimum target was," said Mary Hemmingsen, Hydro's power planning manager. "It speaks well of how we can fill the looming supply-demand gap in 2010."

Hydro's senior vice-president of distribution, Bev Van Ruyven, said in a news release the response indicates the private sector has confidence in projects utilizing a wide range of resources in many areas across the province.

Some of the 53 projects have been considered before, Hemmingsen said. She would not provide details.

Hydro will review the projects to determine if they conform to the tender requirements. Then B.C. Transmission Corporation will assess the transmission infrastructure required to link the projects to the grid.

"At that point we will rank them in terms of cost-effectiveness and look at how they meet the target for 50 per cent clean [generation]," said Hemmingsen, adding that Hydro hopes to announce the approved projects by the end of the summer.

"The volume of the bids we got increases the amount of work we need to do, and especially the work BCTC needs to undertake."

The criteria Hydro will be weighing in connection with each project include the preference for clean power, and price.

The cost factor does concern some environmental groups.

"It will all come down to cost, at least as the energy plan exists, and coal does tend to be cheaper to do [than clean, green alternatives]," said Arthur Caldicott, president of the Georgia Strait Crossing Concerned Citizens' Coalition, which has long argued against fossil-fuel-fired generation.

"Coal as a fuel is kind of cheap and the technology itself, if they are not using the state-of-the-art stuff, can be bought at a reasonable cost."

Caldicott said his group is concerned about the Gold River project and two coal-fired projects that have been proposed.

"But of the 53, that's only three of them that cause us some concern," he said.

TOP

TOP