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Earth's New
Season by Guy Dauncey
Sometimes,
even though we live on the trendy west coast, I feel as if B.C. really
means BC - as in 2000 years behind the times. As a culture, we still treat
our forests, fish, land and fossil fuel reserves as if they were ours for
the taking. The prevailing attitude in too many businesses, homes and
government ministries seems to be "It’s ours, and we’re going to
take what we want of it. If there’s money to be made, let’s have at
it!"
If
you happen to think differently -- that we also need to think about the
needs of nature, of communities, of future generations, and of the planet
as a whole -- how are we to respond?
My approach is to take
it one piece at a time. It is important to avoid getting sucked into the
emotional maelstrom of defeat and hopelessness. So let’s look at just
one aspect -- wind energy. Around the world, and especially in northern
Europe, there’s a wind energy revolution in full spin; the production of
new turbines is growing by 35% a year. It’s clean, it’s economical, it
doesn’t produce harmful CO2 emissions and it produces good,
well-paid jobs. And to cap it all, once the turbines are installed, most
people really like them. And the new, larger turbines no longer kill
birds.
Does BC have good wind
energy resources? For that, we need a wind speed map. BC Hydro has a wind
speed map on its website, but it’s as good as useless, nowhere near as
good as Denmark’s or the USA’s. Without a decent map, you have to do
your own sleuthing. In Denmark, communities are required by law to map out
potential sites for wind turbines. Wouldn’t that be something? In
general, however the answer is yes -- BC has great wind energy potential.
A BC company called
Uniterre did its own sleuthing, and located excellent wind speeds in the
shallow waters of the Hecate Strait, on the north-east side of the Queen
Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii). In partnership with the German
engineering company ABB, they are planning to install a 700 megawatt
offshore wind-farm, known as Nai Kun, with 350 turbines -- the world’s
largest. If the investors and the planning approvals line up, they hope to
be producing energy by 2004, with completion in 2007. They are working
with the Haida and other stakeholders, and seem to be doing everything
right. (A 700 MW wind farm where the wind blows 8 hours a day will produce
the same amount of energy as a 220 MW gas-fired plant that runs 23 hours a
day.)
Another company, Sea
Breeze Energy, has filed applications to install ocean wind speed
measuring gauges with a view to installing turbines off Cape Mudge (Quadra
Island), off Gabriola, in Cordova Channel (just north of Victoria), on a
mountain ridge outside Port Hardy, and various other places. They are very
committed, but they are running into all sorts of community opposition.
Most of their plans involve large installations of 200 MW and larger. BC
Hydro itself, meanwhile, is going ahead with a 10 MW project at Quatsino
Sound, on northwest Vancouver Island. They call it a ‘demonstration
project,’ as if wind energy were something very new.
The other news is that
Greenpeace, the Living Oceans Society and the Tides Canada Foundation have
just done a study with Montréal-based Helimax Energy of the land-based
wind energy potentials around Port Hardy, Port Alice and Prince Rupert.
The areas were chosen because they need some economic stimulus, and
off-shore oil dollar bills are being waved in their faces. The study found
that if you ignore any issues relating to land-use and vegetation (i.e.
forests), the areas have a technically viable potential for 4,800 MW --
that’s a lot. The forest cover could be a problem in some places,
however, since the tops of the turbine hubs would need to be at least 45
metres above the trees. The tallest turbines are 95 metres high, which
would allow only 40 metre-high trees to co-exist underneath. Whether the
Ministry of Forests will co-operate in the shared land-use is another
matter.
There are a lot of good
jobs to be had from all this. The study showed that if 1,200 MW were
installed by 2011 (a $1 billion investment), this would generate 8000
job-years (e.g. 800 jobs for ten-years). If a wind turbine assembly plant
were built, with a cluster of suppliers, this would generate 50,000
job-years. Financially, depending on the location, wind energy can be
competitive with gas-fired energy -- so the whole thing makes enormous
sense. It’s really time for those turbines to start spinning.
Guy Dauncey is author of
Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions to
Global Climate Change (New
Society Publishers, 2001). He lives in Victoria. www.earthfuture.com
Wind Energy Resources:
BC wind map: www.bchydro.com/environment/greenpower/greenpower1652.html
Denmark wind map: www.windpower.dk/tour/wres/dkmap.htm
USA wind map: www.eren.doe.gov/windpoweringamerica/images/wherewind800.jpg
Uniterre: www.uniterre.ca
Sea Breeze: www.seabreezeenergy.com
Living Oceans Society Wind Energy Study: www.livingoceans.org
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