Dear Sir:
Re: “Premier needs to keep energy promise” column by Gerald Amos and Des Nobels in the May 28, 2014 edition of The Terrace Standard.
The writers are correct. With all the attention being paid to the proposed Site C project right now, it is important to remember that BC has other clean energy options available that have a lower impact both on the environment, and on future electricity rates.
During the 2008-2011 Clean Power Call competitive process, wind energy projects won 47 per cent of the 3,266 GWh per year of contracted energy that was procured by BC Hydro. Large productivity gains and a significant drop in turbine prices have now firmly established that wind energy resources form the bulk of BC’s lowest-cost renewable energy opportunities. There is no fuel price risk with wind energy, so wind energy contracts lock in prices for twenty years; with overall inflation, this means the cost of wind energy actually gets cheaper in real terms every single year.
The government has also signaled its intention to ensure that BC has the “cleanest LNG in the world,” that the use of clean energy to power the proposed LNG plants be maximized and that government create new opportunities for independent power producers and First Nations interested in developing clean energy projects. Wind energy delivers on all fronts.
Nicholas Heap
Regional Director, Canadian Wind Energy Association,
Vancouver, BC