BC Hydro president Chris O'Riley speaks during a news conference in Vancouver, on June 22, 2023.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
British Columbia has approved the province’s first major expansion of private power generation in more than 15 years, exempting wind power projects from environment assessments in order to bring nine large wind farms online before the end of the decade.
It’s a stark contrast to Alberta’s approach to renewables and will mean as much as $6-billion in new investment to increase B.C.’s clean energy supply by 8 per cent. That’s the same amount of electricity that will be generated by BC Hydro’s $16-billion Site C hydroelectric dam, which began delivering power to the grid this fall.
In 2023, Alberta attracted almost all the private capital invested in solar and wind power in Canada – that is, before the United Conservative Party government abruptly halted renewable energy development. Last week, the province released new “visual impact” regulations that control where wind and solar projects can be developed, banning them from huge swaths of prime agricultural land and putting billions of dollars in investments at risk.
British Columbia, which has relied heavily on Crown-owned BC Hydro’s system of big dams and reservoirs to meet its clean-energy needs, now aims to capture some of that investment potential.
“The moment we’re in, we’re seeing major jurisdictions move away from clean energy investments,” Premier David Eby said as he announced the results of BC Hydro’s call for power from the private sector. He pointed to Alberta’s new regulations but also uncertainty about the future of clean power in the United States under incoming president Donald Trump. “Here in British Columbia, that presents a huge opportunity for us now.”
BC Hydro currently forecasts that demand for electricity will increase 15 per cent in the province by 2030. President and chief executive officer Chris O’Riley told the news conference at the corporation’s Vancouver headquarters that BC Hydro can meet that demand, in part because it now plans to start issuing new calls for private power projects every two years.
Mr. O’Riley said the corporation’s integrated resource plan was approved by the province’s energy regulator earlier this year. “And we’re anticipating that this call, with Site C, with future calls, and our ongoing investments in conservation, that there will be no gap between supply and demand in the province.”
However, that plan does not include potential demand for opportunities in critical minerals and the artificial intelligence sector. B.C., like other provinces, is seeking to join a global critical-minerals revolution by developing mines for copper, nickel, lithium, graphite and cobalt, all needed for renewable energy projects and electric vehicles. The province is also eyeing the expansion of data centres that provide the infrastructure for generating AI. Both are energy-intensive enterprises that would create significant new demands on the province’s electricity grid – easily more than the output of Site C – and test the limits of its transmission infrastructure.
Mr. Eby said BC Hydro needs to do more than meet the status-quo demands. “Just meeting baseline demand would be missing a significant opportunity,” he told the news conference. “I’m meeting regularly with major investors who are interested in British Columbia, interested in our clean electricity, interested in the relatively affordable rates – the second lowest in North America – but the demands that they have for electricity far exceed what we’re able to provide. And that has been frustrating for me.”
Half the equity in the projects approved Monday, which will collectively generate 4,900 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, comes from First Nations. Kwaatuma Cole Sayers, the executive director of the Clean Energy Association of B.C., said that level of ownership is something to celebrate. “This is all music to my ears,” he said. Indigenous ownership advances reconciliation, he said, while enabling the electrification of communities, industries and transportation.
Adrian Dix, the Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions, said exempting wind projects from the environmental assessment process reflects the urgent need for these projects to support climate action. “We are shortening the distance between announcing projects and getting the turbines spinning. It is recognizing that clean energy projects built in partnership with First Nations are, in fact, environmental projects.”