Drive resurges for 'green' sources of electricity
Rod Nutt Vancouver Sun
In the early 1970s, the world experienced its first modern energy crisis when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries restricted oil production. Almost 30 years later, after two decades of cheap oil and natural gas, Californians are getting used to rolling blackouts. As a result, there is a renewed push to substitute fossil fuels -- mainly oil, natural gas and coal -- with renewable and clean sources of energy.
"The world is not short of energy, but converting it economically and cleanly is the trick," says consultant Julian Taylor, president of Intuit Strategies Inc. of Vancouver. That's the nub of the problem: converting such sources as the wind, the sun and the heat of the earth's core into energy at a reasonable cost.
The U.S. federal government has spent an estimated $110 billion US on energy research over the past 50 years. Tax breaks and other subsidies more than double that figure. But the quest for a cheap, inexhaustible source of power has thus far proven illusive, and the world is still mainly dependent on burning fossil fuels.
British Columbia is an exception, however, satisfying over 90 per cent of its power needs with hydroelectricity. But even at B.C. Hydro, the drive is on to develop alternative "green" sources of power. Earlier this year, the province-owned utility established a green and alternative energy division.
"The goal is to meet 10 per cent of new load requirements with green resources," says Brenda Goehring, manager of the new division. "We define green projects as renewable, environmentally and socially responsible, and licensable."
In April 2000, the utility called for private-sector green-power proposals and to date has received more than 50 replies. "The majority of the proposals are small hydro and woodwaste projects," Goehring says.
There are a number of leading-edge, energy-research projects under way at the University of B.C. But according to professor Bob Evans of the mechanical engineering department, they need consolidating under one roof.
Evans is asking the Canada Foundation for Innovation for $9 million to establish the Clean Energy Research Centre at UBC. "At the moment, all our research areas are spread around the campus and we don't know what each other is doing."
If approved, half the money will be spent on a new building and half on equipment.
"Research findings on alternative energy sources and new technologies will help to reduce the production of greenhouse gases," Evans said.
rnutt@pacpress.southam.ca
BIOMASS:
B.C. HYDRO LOOKS AT POWER PROJECTS THAT BURN WASTE WOOD
Late last year, B.C. Hydro announced the first two projects as part of its 10-per-cent green-energy commitment.
The utility has an agreement to purchase electricity from Miller Creek Power Ltd.'s proposed 25 megawatt run-of-river small hydroelectric project near Pemberton.
Hydro also has a proposal to purchase electricity from Lytton Power Inc.'s woodwaste power project at Lytton, a 25-megawatt electricity facility on the Lytton Lumber Ltd. sawmill site.
Other biomass projects -- mainly the burning of woodwaste -- are in Williams Lake and on Riverside Forest Products site at Armstrong. Another is proposed at Canfor's site in Houston.
"B.C. Hydro is also investigating the viability of several other small hydro and woodwaste projects, plus other green-energy resources including biomass, wind and hydrogen," Hydro president and CEO Michael Costello said.
Green division head Brenda Goehring also said the utility is looking at micro-hydro, projects less than two megawatts. (One megawatt is equivalent to the average consumption of about 1,000 homes.)
"We've had several hundred applications for micro-hydro projects, but the government is concerned about the impact on the environment and fish." she said. "The challenge is how to enable them. For large projects, there is set process and transparency. A rancher may have a river on his property, but the process may be too onerous to make it worthwhile."
Goehring said Hydro is working with the government to streamline the process for getting approval for small and micro-hydro projects. The utility is also installing an additional turbine at its Seven Mile Dam and considering an extra turbine at the Revelstoke dam.
GEOTHERMAL:
IT'S THE SECOND-LARGEST, GRID-CONNECTED, RENEWABLE, POWER SOURCE IN THE U.S.
Geothermal energy is heat derived from the earth. It is the thermal energy contained in the rock and fluid in the earth's crust.
Power is generated by converting the hydrothermal fluids into steam, which powers conventional turbines. The process is the same as burning coal to make steam, without the additional costs of mining and transportation.
Geothermal energy is the United States' second-largest, grid-connected, renewable electricity source after hydroelectricity.
More than 2,700 megawatts of electric power is produced in the U.S. from geothermal power, or enough to provide electricity for 3.5 million homes, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
The cost of generating power from geothermal resources has decreased by 25 per cent over the past two decades. Twenty-one countries generate 8,000 megawatts of electricity from geothermal resources and 10 times that amount could be brought on stream worldwide over the next two or three decades.
The geysers north of San Francisco have been generating reliable, renewable electrical power continuously since 1960 from high-temperature, dry steam. California's geothermal power plants, which have an installed capacity of 1,900 megawatts, produce about five per cent of the state's electricity and 40 per cent of the world's geothermally generated electricity.
The Geological Survey of Canada has determined the best potential locations for geothermal power are in B.C. on Canada's portion of the "ring of fire." B.C. Hydro selected Meager Creek, 170 km north of Vancouver and 70 km from the power grid, as the best of the top three geothermal spots in B.C. and spent about $30 million on it from 1973 to 1984.
A joint-venture between Crew Development Corp. of Vancouver and Guy F. Atkinson, a U.S. construction and engineering firm, spent $20 million from 1992 to 1995, when low power prices put the project on hold. Crew acquired 100 per cent of Meager Creek when Guy F. Atkinson ran into financial difficulties.
Crew chairman John Darch said Meager Creek has a potential energy capacity of 250 megawatts and an initial capacity of 110 megawatts.
Crew plans to vend 100 per cent of the project into an inactive CDNX-listed company to be renamed North Pacific GeoPower. Crew will retain an 85-per-cent interest in North Pacific and will issue its shareholders a dividend of North Pacific shares.
SOLAR ENERGY:
WORLDWIDE, THE SOLAR ENERGY INDUSTRY IS WORTH $1 BILLION US
The solar-energy industry is a $1-billion US business worldwide, according to Lou Stamenic, R&D program head at the technology centre at the B.C. Institute of Technology.
"The big oil companies are heavily involved in photovoltaic cells" (PVs), he says.
PVs, which have been used for many years to generate power on spacecraft, are now being used in building projects.
Solar panels can be used as the exterior cladding on a building, allowing the PVs to double as both a building facade or roof and as a source of electricity.
BP, which has recently changed its name from British Petroleum to Beyond Petroleum, is the biggest player in the PV industry, acquiring a number of companies under the wing of BP Solar.
Shell is the second-largest player in the PV industry.
Stamenic launched the photovoltaic energy applied research lab (PEARL) at BCIT in 1998 to develop systems to reduce the cost of solar electricity by combining energy production with other functions of the building envelope. The PEARL team developed and installed a ventilation system as part of the refurbishment of the downtown Telus building in Vancouver.
Using principles similar to double-glazed storm windows, designers laid the building's new glazed facade over the old, creating an aesthetically pleasing, insulating air space that is ventilated by fans powered by solar modules incorporated into the facade.
"The advantage of PVs is that they generate electricity on the site, cutting out distribution losses," Stamenic says. "There are vast solar panels in the deserts of Arizona and Nevada, but PVs are not suited to central generation. On-site generation is more cost-effective."
He says 15 to 20 years ago, PVs generated electricity at $30 to $40 US a watt. Today, it's down to about $5 US a watt.
Europe and Japan are the leaders in PV applications, and encourage their use through tax incentives. Stamenic says the German government gives $3 US per watt generated by PVs, effectively halving the cost, and will pay 50 cents US per kilowatt-hour for excess electricity that is put into the grid. California is paying $5 US per watt towards the cost of installing PVs.
Stamenic estimates PVs account for about one per cent of the electricity generated in the United States, compared with about eight per cent in Germany and six-to-eight per cent in Japan.
"[British Prime Minister] Tony Blair has just announced a 10,000-roof program in the U.K. using PVs," he says.
"PV use worldwide has increased by 30 per cent a year for the last five or six years."
WIND ENERGY:
TOWERS HAVE BEEN INSTALLED ON VANCOUVER ISLAND AND NEAR PRINCE RUPERT
Hydro expects to have wind generation in its system in 2002.
Last year, it erected a wind-monitoring tower near Alert Bay on Cormorant Island off the east coast of northern Vancouver Island. The tower measures the speed, direction, and consistency of the wind as part of a viability study.
In a joint effort with the 'Namgis First Nation, on whose land the tower is located, band members are collecting the data every two weeks and sending the information to Hydro.
Other towers have been installed at Jordan Ridge on southern Vancouver Island near Victoria, and on Mount Hays near Prince Rupert.
The towers are 50 metres tall and constructed of galvanized steel. A temperature sensor and two anemometers (wind gauges) are mounted on the top of the towers, which are support by 36 guy wires attached to eight anchor shafts covering 50 square metres.
Wind is used to generate electricity in Denmark, Germany and Great Britain.
In Canada, wind is used to generate electricity in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta but in British Columbia, success of wind generation is challenged by the abundance of mountains and trees. |
