| First Nation: Band gets power link while Wind Energy builds transmission lines
Scott Simpson
Vancouver Sun
Friday, May 11, 2007
The Haida Nation took its first step Thursday towards ending its isolation from British Columbia's mainstream electricity system.
In a deal linked to the success of a Vancouver junior energy company's plan for a $1-billion wind farm project in Hecate Strait, the Haida would receive a long-sought link to the B.C. electricity grid.
In exchange, NaiKun Wind Energy Group would have access to the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) for land-based transmission links between their wind farm and BC Hydro interchange on the mainland at Prince Rupert.
The transmission link would carry power to the mainland from NaiKun's proposed 320 megawatt offshore wind farm -- the first such proposal for Canada.
But since wind power is an intermittent power source, power would also be carried from the mainland to the islands and replace power that is now produced by diesel generators
The diesel system requires about 17,000 litres of fuel per day to operate and reliance upon it makes the Haida among the biggest per-capita greenhouse gas emitters in the province.
Nonetheless, Haida Gwaii residents are paying the same electricity rates as other B.C. residents on the Hydro grid.
"We pay the same power rates as somebody on the mainland, but the cost is horrendous for B.C. Hydro," said Haida Nation council president Guujaaw.
The Naikun project is currently being examined by the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office.
It has not been submitted to BC Hydro, which is expected to announce this fall an open call for proposals for new electricity supply.
The Haida Gwaii electricity connection is contingent on acceptance from both those agencies -- but the first nation's support for the Hecate Strait project is equally significant in light of the Haida's assertion of sovereign right to protect the exceptional environmental value of their islands.
In a telephone interview, Guujaaw contrasted his people's support for the green power project with their resistance to offshore oil and gas exploration in the vicinity of their traditional territory.
"This is not like [oil] drilling. There are not a lot of contaminants we have to worry about," Guujaaw said.
"For me, the environmental standards were important, and also determining what would be in it for our people if it was to happen."
Guujaaw said the Haida had examined opportunities for hydroelectric development to supply the islands but noted there were no big-river opportunities to develop a substantial full-time electricity resource -- and that's before fisheries impacts are taken into account.
Guujaaw noted that negotiations leading to Thursday's announcement were under way for two years.
NaiKun chairman Michael Burns suggested that other aspects of the deal are of potentially greater significance to the Haida than the electricity supply.
The supply connection is worth about $50 million -- but Burns called it a "secondary outcome."
"Their key concerns or aspirations were protection of the environment, jobs for islanders, and some economic return," Burns said in a telephone interview.
Haida council representatives will sit with NaiKun executives as directors of the operating company that will be created to run the wind turbines.
"They are there with us for the next 40 years in that operating company, making the decisions about who to hire, what impact we are having on the environment day to day," Burns said.
"And finally, they are taking dividends from that company on a shared basis."
The Haida already own just under one million shares of NaiKun, a publicly listed company on the TSX Venture exchange.
ssimpson@png.canwest.com
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REAPING THE WIND
NaiKun Wind Development plans B.C.'s first wind farm in the waters of Hecate Strait, off the northeast coast of Haida Gwaii.
1,750 megawatts: Project's capacity at completion
600,000: Number of homes project could power
110: Maximun number of turbines planned
10 metres per second: Average annual wind speeds in the area
Source: NaiKun Wind Development
© The Vancouver Sun 2007 | 
