The City of Surrey, Nechako Lumber and Kanaka Bar Indian Band were among the eight recipients of Clean Energy BC awards last night.
The awards coincided with this week’s Generate 2012: Finding the Balance clean energy conference.
Surrey won an award for environmental stewardship and community improvement for its Rethink Waste collection program, which separates household waste into recyclables, garbage and compostable organics at the curbside. The program is expected to reduce the city’s CO2 emissions by an estimated 6,625 tonnes per year – equal to taking 1,300 cars off the road.
Nechako Lumber, Turboden and WGL Technical Inc. were jointly awarded the project excellence award for Nechako’s 2.2 megawatt biomass power plant in Vanderhoof. The plant produces 140,000 tonnes of wood pellets annually. The Turboden technology used in a new energy system recovers the heat used in the pellet production process to produce electricity.
The Kanaka Bar Indian Band received the community of the year award for the various clean-energy initiatives the band has promoted since the 1980s, including the 50-megawatt Kwoiek Creek run-of-river hydroelectric project.
Clean Energy BC also handed out two lifetime achievement awards to:
- Jimmy Ko, project manager, BC Hydro’s transmission generator interconnection group, for “professionalism, expertise and the insights” provided for the electrical utility industry; and
- Craig Aspinall of Aspinall & Associates Ltd. for “outstanding service to the industry.”
Mike Wise, president of GeoWise Engineering Ltd., also received a merit award for his “tireless commitment to the development of clean energy in BC over the last decade.”
