https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/haida-gwaii-village-aims-to-eliminate-diesel-by-turning-to-renewable-energy-1.5149383
[links in online article]
Haida Gwaii village aims to eliminate diesel by turning to renewable energy
Village of Queen Charlotte mayor says, 'It's just the right thing to do'
Maryse Zeidler · CBC News · Posted: May 25, 2019
A small village on British Columbia's picturesque Haida Gwaii wants to
replace the diesel fuel it relies on with renewable energy.
The Village of Queen Charlotte, which has about 850 residents, recently
issued a request for proposals for engineering companies to study
options that will offset greenhouse gas emissions by using solar, wind
or hydro instead.
"It's just the right thing to do. You know, global warming is
occurring," said Queen Charlotte Mayor Kris Olsen, whose Haida name is
Dluuguu.
BC Hydro ships fuel for the island across the Hecate Strait to two
diesel generation stations. Some officials on Haida Gwaii say the power
supply is the island's "dirty little secret."
Some solar already in place
In 2012, BC Hydro issued a call for renewable energy projects for all of
Haida Gwaii, but opted not to move forward after receiving 26 submissions.
But Olsen said he thinks this call for proposals will have a better
chance at success because it's just for the Village of Queen Charlotte,
and not the entire island chain.
"We live in this beautiful place. We're very aware that we have a huge
impact on how we get our energy," he said. "We're looking at every
opportunity for us to reduce that."
The village's main municipal building already is supplemented by solar
panels on its rooftop, Olsen says, and other municipalities on the
island also have renewable energy sources like heat pumps.
In a written statement, BC Hydro said it's "open to opportunities to
cost-effectively reduce diesel generation for electricity needs on Haida
Gwaii and to review potential future projects."
'Tremendous opportunity'
Martin Ordonez, a renewable energy expert at the University of British
Columbia, says technology for solar energy in particular has come a long
way in the past few years and costs have dropped.
"From a technological point of view I have no doubt that it can be
done," Ordonez said. "Any town or location that has a diesel generator,
there's a tremendous opportunity to replace that with renewables."
Ordonez points out that the cost of shipping diesel by boat makes
renewable energy projects financially attractive in the long-term.
The biggest challenge for a renewable energy project like this, Ordonez
says, is the start-up costs.
But Olsen says he and the other city councillors are committed to
pushing the project forward.
There's already about $100,000 set aside for the initial research, he
says, and the municipality hopes to access funding through Clean B.C.
and the federal gas tax once a plan is in place.
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