B.C.Energy Minister Adrian Dix framed a $600-million wind project near Taylor headed by Saulteau First Nations in northeastern B.C. as part of a "generational transition" away from fossil fuels and toward greater energy independence.
Dix made these comments Thursday, (Jan. 23), in Vancouver, where he announced the project along with Chief Rudy Paquette of the Saulteau First Nations, Cory Basil, senior vice-president of EDF Renewables, and Chris O'Riley, president and CEO of BC Hydro.
The project is the first of nine wind projects announced in early December with First Nations holding majority stakes in eight of the nine. The project's 40 wind-turbines are expected to generate 200 megawatts, enough to power to 60,000 homes. Plans call for the wind farm to be operational by 2031.
"We got to go B次元官网网址� we need the power," Dix said in describing a goal to get the project online as soon as possible.
The nine wind projects B次元官网网址� all of which government has freed from traditional environmental assessments B次元官网网址� are said to generate 5,000 gigawatt hours per year of electricity, enough to power 500,000 new homes, increasing the available supply of power by eight per cent. Government estimates the projects will generate between $5 and $6 billion in private capital spending.
Government later announced a solar project as part of its renewable-only call for power. Dix said the projects will help B.C. lower climate-change-causing emissions and advance "economic reconciliation" framing them as a matter of "economic justice."
Dix faced several questions about the potential impacts of threatened U.S. tariffs on power costs. He said the stakes have always been there, adding the threatened tariffs increase the urgency about B.C.'s power supply in the face of growing demand.
"We need all of the energy in this call of power and we need more," he said.
He also used the occasion to frame B.C. as a "centre for renewable energy" just as other jurisdictions are turning away. He specifically pointed to the existence of BC Hydro as a B次元官网网址渉uge advantageB次元官网网址� for B.C.
More to come...
