In 2008 Vancouver based BC Hydro announced a call for alternative energy projects to be built in the province. The request was for a total of 5,000 gigawatt hours per year but they received proposals that would have totaled 17,000 gigawatt hours per year. The 25 projects accepted will total at least 3,100 gigawatt hours per year when they are all completed.
The recently announced winners of the power call include several wind power projects which will provide about half of the new power or about 1500GWH/year. These include projects from Sea Breeze Energy, Capitol Power and Finavera Renewables. These projects will be built in northern BC at Tumbler Ridge and Chetwynd as well as the northern tip of Vancouver Island near Port Hardy.
The rest of the approved projects are primarily run of the river hydro with one small storage hydro project near Stewart BC of 139 GWH/year and one waste heat project of 46 GWH/year near Sparwood BC.
The run of the river hydro projects include:
Three projects from Creek Power Inc. which will be built near Pemberton, totaling 225 GWH/year.
Three projects from Cloudworks Energy Inc. to be built near Mission and Harrison Hot Springs. These projects will total 210 GWH/year.
One project from Plutonic Power inc. and GE Energy Financial Services Company which will be built near Powell River and generate a total of 214 GWH/year.
Three projects from the NI Hydro Holding Corp. representing the Stlixwim partnership and Stlixwim First Project Corp. These will be built near Sechelt and will generate a total of 198GWH/year.
One project from Kwagis Power Limited Partnership to be built near Port McNeill on Vancouver Island
with a generating capacity of 183 GWH/year.
The fact that these projects totaled only 3100 GWH/year from a call for 5000 GWH/year means there should be another call in the future. Also considering the total of 17,000 GWH/year in proposals that the call generated there appears to be a lot of interest and potential for further renewable energy development in the province.
Despite the fact that run of the river hydro is considered to be much more friendly to the environment than traditional hydro dams or thermal power plants these projects have still generated a fair amount of controversy that only further study will determine the answer.
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