BC’s nascent wind energy industry is waiting for government policy directions and BC Hydro purchasing plans to jump-start its pursuit of equalling and exceeding other Canadian and global jurisdictions in developing the renewable energy source.
The industry, seemingly dismayed that B.C. is lagging behind the rest of the country in wind energy generation despite being better suited than other regions for its strategic development, has set ambitious targets that it says would enable the province to meet 17% of its electricity requirements from wind by 2025 – up from just under 1% today.
The strategy calls on the B.C. government to install 5,250 megawatts of “cost-competitive, low impact” wind power capacity by 2025.
Achieving that target would result in an estimated $16 billion investment in the province, Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA), said at the association’s annual conference and exhibition, which ended last Thursday in Vancouver.
B.C. currently has just two operating wind farms:
•the 144-megawatt Dokie wind project near Chetwynd in the Peace River region; and
•the 102-megawatt Bear Mountain wind park near Dawson Creek.
Vancouver has one wind energy facility: the 1.5-megawatt Eye of the Wind turbine atop Grouse Mountain.
The three projects place B.C. in sixth place among Canada’s 10 provinces in installed wind energy capacity, but just under half of the power BC Hydro bought in its 2008 call for tenders will be sourced from wind turbines to be installed at six new projects. They will increase B.C.’s installed wind energy capacity to 784 megawatts by 2014, but Hornung reckons that’s barely scratching the surface of the province’s wind energy potential.
He pointed out that other jurisdictions in Canada are far ahead of B.C. in wind energy development. “Ontario is targeting 7,500 megawatts of wind by 2018. Quebec is on track to install 4,000 megawatts by 2015. Alberta is working to build new transmission capacity that, if completed, will allow more than 3,000 megawatts of wind energy projects to connect to the grid.”
If B.C. ups the ante, Hornung said thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of new investment would flow into the province.
“Implementing our plan would generate an estimated 22,500 person-years of employment during construction and an additional 7,500 person-years of employment over the 20 to 25 year operating lifespan of these projects.”
He added that manufacturing wind turbine components and developing local expertise in skills connected with wind farm construction and maintenance would create additional economic and employment benefits.
Hornung conceded that building more than 5,000 megawatts of new wind energy capacity in B.C. over the next 15 years is an ambitious goal. But he said it’s feasible.
What’s holding B.C. back, he said, is the province’s huge hydro energy resource, the best of which remain far more competitive in the marketplace than wind.
For the industry to really take off in B.C., Hornung said major changes are needed.
“BC Hydro’s competitive tendering processes are technically challenging and expensive. Preparing tenders is costly and a lack of transparency on the timing and frequency of calls of power and the evaluation of bids unnecessarily increases those costs.”
Hornung said B.C. needs a procurement process that brings certainty to the market. “That means regular calls for power or reforming B.C.’s standing offer program to make it more viable for new projects. Long-term policy clarity and policy certainty will decrease costs and decrease risks and give developers the confidence they need to invest in this province.”
He added that there are too few people working on approvals and permits to handle the interest in new wind energy development in B.C.
Industry consultant Steve Davis, of Steve Davis & Associates Ltd., told BIV that a report he had prepared for CanWEA highlighted a “huge surge” of new industrial load in B.C., particularly from potential liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and new mines in the province’s north. •
