Power firms gear up
Recently announced targets for clean energy expected to bring a
private-sector cash infusion
Tracy Tjaden
Business in Vancouver Online
December 3-9, 2002
B.C.'s clean energy sector is poised for a strong injection of private
sector cash since the provincial government upped its target for clean energy.
"We will put more energy and more people on our projects
there," said Richard Blanchet, vice-president of development for
Montreal-based Innergex Limited Partnership, owned by five large Canadian
financial institutions.
"B.C. is one of our top priorities."
Blanchet said Innergex, which focuses on river and wind-powered
generation, has invested close to $8 million so far in B.C. But he expects that
to balloon to $100 million in the next two years alone as construction begins on
new projects.
The provincial government unveiled a new energy policy November 25 that
Victoria promised will maintain B.C.'s low prices and leaves it to the private
sector to supply all new sources of energy in B.C.
The plan will see BC Hydro split into two new separate divisions. One
division will own and control the utility's hydro dams and distribution assets
and another will oversee use of the transmission lines.
BC Hydro has increased its target for clean energy from 10 to 50 per cent
of the new energy brought on-line in future. Experts expect that move to spark a
flush of companies and investment into B.C.'s alternative energy industry.
"It's huge," Brenda Goehring, manager of the green and
alternative energy division for BC Hydro, said of the province's potential in
the area.
A recent study found B.C. has the potential to produce 5,000 megawatt
hours of green energy, which includes river projects, small hydro projects,
wind, tidal, ocean wave and solar generation. Those projects could cost up to
$10 billion to get up and running. Goehring said the feasibility study did not
look at economic viability but should provide a compass for companies eyeing
opportunities.
"The competitiveness of those emerging technologies will come to
fruition and translate to more opportunity in the private sector," said
Goehring.
There are currently two green projects in operation in B.C. and another
23 projects approved, Goehring added.
The utility's goal is to reach the 50-per-cent clean energy target in 10
years, Goehring said. "Clean" sources are defined as green energy and
certain co-generation plants that are "the highest in environmental
standards and best use of the resources," Goehring said.
There are signs the boom is already under way.
Steve Davis, president of the Independent Power Association of B.C., said
the group has 100 members today, up from 50 last year. He expects the tally will
hit 200 by the end of next year. "This gives investors greater
confidence," he said, adding most of the new companies coming into the
market are from Ontario and Alberta, with a few from the U.S.
David Andrews, president of Cloudworks Energy LP Inc. in Yaletown, one of
the few B.C. renewable energy companies with projects running, applauded the new
policy. He said it shows BC Hydro is "really prepared to buy our
power."
He also said the move to create an independent corporation to control
power transmission lines in the province should improve access for independent
producers.
"It has to be more competitive," he said of the utility's high
rates for transmission. Cloudworks develops run-of-river projects, which take
water out of a stream, run it through a pipe downstream at high speeds, feed it
through a turbine to produce power and then pipe it back into the stream.
It developed two projects that are under way and has another 10 in the
works.
http://www.biv.com/
|