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Artist rendering of the proposed Site C dam (Courtesy B.C. Hydro)
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BC Hydro’s Site C hydroelectric dam has been issued an environmental certificate from the Ministers of Environment and Forest, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.
The $7.9 billion project would flood about 5,550 hectares of land along 83 km of the Peace River, creating a reservoir of about 9,330 hectares. BC Hydro expects it to provide 1,100 megawatts of capacity and produce about 5,100 gigawatt hours of electricity each year, enough to power about 450,000 homes per year.
A Joint Review Panel’s report had concluded that a failure to research into BC’s geothermal resources over the last 30 years has left BC Hydro without information about the resource “that BC Hydro thinks may offer up to 700 megawatts of firm, economic power with low environmental costs.”
When asked for further information about the analysis of geothermal, David Conway, Community Relations Manager for BC Hydro’s Site C project responded that no geothermal electricity projects have bid into any of BC Hydro’s clean power calls to date, despite being eligible. He says BC Hydro believes the high risk and associated high cost of exploring and confirming geothermal resources have kept independent power producers from advancing the industry, and that geothermal can’t be counted on to provide energy and capacity in the timeframe required by BC Hydro.
But the panel has also said that BC Hydro has not demonstrated the need for this project on the timetable it has set out.
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