By Alison Taylor
After years of delays and setbacks, some a result of the construction of the $100 million Olympic bobsled track, a local “green” power project is back on track.
Proponents of the Fitzsimmons Creek run-of-river power project confirmed this week that work is full steam ahead, with a goal of having the project completed before the 2010 Games.
It is Whistler-Blackcomb’s top priority project in its efforts to mitigate climate change.
“It’s full throttle,” said Whistler-Blackcomb’s mountain planning and environmental resource manager Arthur DeJong. “We are working every day on this project.
“It’s right in the middle of 38 lifts. How can we as a ski operator not want to do the right thing, in terms of climate change, and not proceed with this? This is clearly the greatest action that we can move forward on in the short term to mitigate climate change.”
Whistler-Blackcomb is facilitating the project, which will lie within the ski area boundary. Vancouver-based Ledcor will develop the project.
The news that the Fitzsimmons independent power project (IPP) is not dead comes on the heels of the provincial government’s energy plan, which was announced Tuesday.
That plan outlines a strong commitment to green energy and conservation in the years to come.
“All new electricity generation, whether it comes from hydro, biomass, wind, tidal or solar, will emit net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2016,” announced B.C.’s Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Richard Neufeld.
To that end, Neufeld said B.C. Hydro would be introducing a standing offer program with a set purchase price for electricity from clean energy sources or high efficiency cogeneration projects of 10 megawatts or less in size.
The Fitzsimmons run of river project, at 6.6 megawatts, would qualify.
B.C. Hydro’s media relations manager, Elisha Moreno, could not confirm the details on that program but said it would help stimulate the market for IPPs.
She added that Hydro is interested in the power from the Fitzsimmons Creek.
“That’s valuable energy to us,” she said. “We’ll always be open to talking to them about it.”
Ledcor, the project developers, had to cancel their 2001-02 energy purchase agreement with Hydro when it appeared the project was not going to come to fruition.
Development of the IPP was frustrated by its proximity to the Olympic bobsled/luge track on Blackcomb Mountain.
Ledcor examined an alternate route that would see the underground pipe located further away from the multi-million track but it was not feasible.
Jamie Horner, Ledcor’s senior project manager, confirmed that the IPP can run beside the Olympic track.
They are now working with the integrated security management group of the RCMP, he said, to satisfy security and safety concerns during the Games.
“It would be a fantastic showcase for green energy and the Olympic movement and in B.C. and really showing what we are capable of,” he said.
The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Games did not return phone calls from Pique Newsmagazine by deadline Wednesday.
Horner said Ledcor still needs to get all its permits and licensing approved before the IPP can move forward. That includes a rezoning from Whistler council. Several years ago, council approved a rezoning for the Brandywine IPP in the south end of Whistler.
Mayor Ken Melamed said he has been kept up to date on the Fitzsimmons project over the years.
“I’ve been very supportive and very interested in pursuing this because I think it’s one of those IPPs that can be built without negatively impacting the creek in the sense that not too many people actually use that part of the Fitzsimmons Valley,” said the mayor.
“It seems, in principle, it’s an ideal location.”
Other IPPs in the region have raised the ire of local communities, particularly kayakers who have “lost” the Rutherford and Ashlu Creeks to power projects.
Fitzsimmons Creek, however, is considered an industrialized creek. Whistler-Blackcomb takes water from the creek for snowmaking.
DeJong said there would be community consultation as the proponents move forward with the project.
The Fitzsimmons IPP is relatively small compared to others like it in the region. It will produce enough electricity to power 3,000 homes a year. That’s the same amount of energy Whistler-Blackcomb uses annually. The power generated from the IPP would go into B.C. Hydro’s power grid.
And while a project that generates as much energy as Whistler-Blackcomb uses makes the ski operator look good, it’s not just about the aesthetics of the project.
“This is not a one-off for us,” said DeJong. “We have a climate change policy here at Whistler-Blackcomb that speaks to adapting because we have to. And adapting means doing things like putting lifts higher into our more long-term snow-reliant zones, it means snowmaking, it means summer grooming, it means diversification. But it also means, equally important, we need to play a global leadership role in the mitigation of climate change. And so this is one of the projects on the mitigation side.”
