Part II of todays earlier post is still on the way, however this article just caught my eye, and – in my opinion – is cause for more than a minor celebration.
B.C.’s biggest run-of-river proposal is the latest alternative electricity investment to be slowed or stopped in a shifting political environment for private power development.
The Bute Inlet project is designed to include 17 stream diversions and powerhouses in a steep fjord north of Powell River. After missing out on a BC Hydro power purchase contract and seeing the B.C. government’s new Clean Energy Act that passed this spring, developer Plutonic Power Corp. wrote to the federal environmental review panel to say it is putting its plan on hold for further study.
Rupert Legge, president of Plutonic subsidiary Bute Hydro Inc., said in an interview the company has done further field work this year, but hasn’t yet decided whether the project will be scaled back.
“While the Clean Energy Act makes some improvements in the governance framework for electricity development in B.C., there is no immediate certainty for procurement of new projects, with a new planning process just beginning,” Legge said.
Another project that failed to secure a BC Hydro power purchase offer this spring is NaiKun Wind, proposing to build offshore wind towers in Hecate Strait near Haida Gwaii that would power the equivalent of 130,000 homes. NaiKun said it would continue working with the federal government and the Haida Nation, which would be a co-owner.
Paul Taylor, a former Insurance Corp. of B.C. president, left the top executive post at NaiKun this week. He said in March that large electricity developments need a “fair, predictable” power purchase system and a power export framework in provincial legislation.
Read the rest of this article here http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/business/96600804.html
Interesting timing on this, look for more executives to jump ship in these private power companies as they begin to see the writing on the wall….
Westcoast Views with Laila Yuile 
Thanks for the interesting articles.
Here are my thoughts on the recent Clean Energy Act:
The Act opens the door for BC Hydro to take on more huge expenditures to buy private power from IPPs in BC, and to build more capacity for accommodating and backing up that intermittent energy.
BCUC’s oversight and veto power over those expenditures has been removed.
The Act says that those $billions in costs to BC Hydro are not to be passed on to Hydro ratepayers.
But, those costs will show up as BC Hydro debt.
So, it’s a way of hiding debt from view.
Here’s an example IPP in northern BC:
http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_north/terracestandard/news/95800904.html
Publicly-owned BC Hydro buys the expensive IPP power. BC Hydro first has to build capacity in its system to accommodate that intermittent power.
The public is also expected to share the costs of the new transmission line needed to hookup the IPP into the system.
BC Hydro then likely would have to export that power at a loss.
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Naikun says with the support of the Haida Nation they will build the windfarm, when in fact they mean Haida leadership. Many Haida do not support this company putting over 500 Turbines in the waters of Haida Gwaii. They have been turned down by BC Hydro. yet still persist they will carry on under the New Energy Act. Paul Taylor was also Deputy Finance Minister: Ray Castelli was also, a one-time federal cabinet chief of staff:Jack Austin had quite a political career:Tony Fogarassy very involved in writig gov legislation in the oil and gas industry. James Hoggan sat as Chair of the BC Green Energy Advisory Task Force stand to profit if Naikun Wind Energy Group gets a power purchase agreement. Chairman and President of NaiKun Wind Energy Group Inc., Michael C. Burns, announced that Vancouver public relations firm James Hoggan and Associates has entered into a private placement agreement to acquire some 27,000 shares of NaiKun Wind Energy Group Inc. at
a price of C$0.55 per share: http://saveourrivers.ca/action/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/TaskForce-Group3-Backgrounder-Dec30-09.pdf
Tom Olsen who is managing Director of Haida Corporation, Haico sits on the forestry round table in gov. A lot of Gov involvement in a windfarm thats not supported by the Haida People as claimed. A lot of research by a group of Haida members has found wind energy does not perform well.
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