The Vancouver Island Generation Project is tying its star to Nanaimo with the announcement Wednesday it has entered into an option-to-purchase agreement with Pope and Talbot to purchase property at Duke Point.
The property on the Harmac pulp mill site is intended to house a $300 million, 265-megawatt, natural gas-fired electricity generating facility. Construction is proposed to begin in the spring of 2003.
The announcement comes as no surprise as Hydro had targeted Duke Point as the ideal location, even though the project had been shopped at Port Alberni and the Cowichan Valley.
"We looked at sites up and down the island, and the Duke Point site is the one that is most suitable -- it seems a natural fit," said Shawn Thomas, Hydro's senior vice president of public affairs. "It is in a heavy industrial area, appropriately zoned and there is community support for this location."
According to B.C. Hydro, the project is critical to maintain a balance in the supply and demand for electricity on the Island which produces just 20 per cent of the electricity it consumes.
The balance comes from the Lower Mainland via underwater cables which Hydro contends are deteriorating and would be too expensive to replace.
Hydro has said the plant is necessary as the Island faces severe electricity shortages in coming years -- that's why they have another generation plant in the cards for as early as 2007.
Unless the $300-million project gets built Hydro says the Island could see brownouts at peak usage times.
But there has been vocal opposition to the plant, with many questioning Hydro's numbers and fearing the impact the plant's gaseous emissions will have a severe impact on the environment.
The major players will apply later this month for a project approval certificate from the provincial environmental assessment office and the project will undergo a formal review process. That will include an integrated assessment of the project's environmental, social, economic, health, cultural and heritage effects.
Hearings are also taking place in the region over the proposed Georgia Strait natural gas pipeline, a project by B.C. Hydro and Williams, a U.S. firm. The pipeline from Washington state to Vancouver Island will help feed the proposed Duke Point plant and another in Campbell River.
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