Can you feel the energy in the room? No?
Then you’re not paying attention. It’s coursing through newswires and picking up spin all over the shop. The energy in this case is “clean” – solar, wind, run-of-river, geothermal – all those Mother Nature-approved power sources that energy paradigm shifters are betting everyone else’s money on shouldering the world’s energy needs once the demonized fossil fuel oxen have been driven to the slaughterhouse.
Better news still, according to press release parade marshals, First Nations are climbing aboard the clean-energy train en masse.
Native business prospects from the cresting green-energy wave was a key discussion point at the recent Generate 2011 clean energy conference in Vancouver.
Elsewhere, a memorandum of agreement (MOU) was signed recently between Clean Energy BC, the First Nation Energy and Mining Council and several B.C. native bands to “collaborate on future clean-energy projects in British Columbia.” Looks to be “all good” as they say in Jargonville.
If First Nations clean-energy agreements like the aforementioned yield more than MOUs, then we might be making some progress.Until then, however, rain will continue to fall on B.C.’s clean-energy parade. Native bands, especially in the province’s distant rural regions, would be among the main benefactors from the development of viable clean-energy sources like run-of-river (ROR) hydro. It could wean their communities from diesel-power dependency and provide band members with much-needed entrepreneurial opportunities. A 10-megawatt ROR plant, for example, can generate annual revenue of between $3 million and $6 million.
Some enlightened band leaders are embracing the long-term benefits of those opportunities and the independent power producers (IPPs) that help underwrite their costs.
Others, however, still don’t see much beyond the traditional parochial reserve turf and welfare dependency trap they and their tribes have been mired in for decades.
IPP run-of-river development for that 10-megawatt creek faces a daunting set of hurdles, including:
•at least $3 million in development costs;
•more than 40 studies;
•50 permits; and
•four years to secure approvals.
But for some IPPs, dealing with native bands themselves trumps all other hurdles. Consider that, as one IPP pointed out to Public Offerings, it can take up to six years of continuous interaction with a native band for a single project, which can be derailed over the most whimsical of reasons. One proponent with $1 million invested reportedly had its project rejected by the government because of “spirits found in the creek.”
Native bands wield huge power in the IPP approval process, but because few have any of their skin in the game, they suffer no investment consequences from killing projects that don’t conform to all their demands, regardless of how unreasonable they might be. Meanwhile, IPPs less practised in the complexities of dealing with B.C.’s diverse group of native bands, each with unique expectations, get no government help in First Nations negotiations. Their projects consequently have little chance of succeeding.
Without better mutual understanding on both banks of the IPP energy river, the much lauded and applauded clean-energy ambitions of B.C. natives will be little more than empty PR wind and short-term cash grabs. •
