Green power producers are expecting to generate many new business opportunities from the B.C. government's recently announced 2007 energy plan.
Producers and environmentalists alike are praising the plan, which aims to make B.C. energy self-sufficient by 2016 by ensuring that clean or renewable electricity accounts for 90 per cent of all generation through hydroelectric, solar, wind, woodwaste or other sources.
The plan calls for zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2016. BC Hydro will also be required to get 50 per cent of its incremental supply from conservation, compared to 30 per cent now.
Oil and gas producers are also lauding the plan, which seeks to eliminate routine well-flaring by 2016. However, conventional producers suffered a setback as Premier Gordon Campbell's government decided natural gas no longer qualifies as a clean energy source.
"(The plan) is very good news, not only because of the need to make British Columbia self-sufficient in energy," says Guy Dauncey, president of the Victoria-based B.C. Sustainable Energy Association.
"It means that the calls for power that BC Hydro will be issuing, presumably every year between now and 2016, will also be going to green energy."
Companies whose projects can't produce hydroelectricity at the current rate of seven or eight cents a kilowatt will also be able to tap into the Clean Energy Fund, which will provide $25 million for renewable-energy projects, he adds.
"This is what it takes to start us promoting tidal energy," says Dauncey. "It might cost 20 cents a kilowatt-hour for the first megawatt, because all of your (research and development) problems are at the very beginning of the new technology. Once that technology matures, the price may well drop to something that's more manageable."
Dauncey, who has been critical of B.C. energy policy in the past, rates the plan as one of the best in the world. But he warns the hype surrounding renewable energy should be balanced against this year's and next year's provincial budgets, and the fact producers invest mainly in fossil fuels while devoting a fraction of their expenditures to clean projects.
He opposes the government's desire to encourage the development of coalbed methane, along with tight gas and shale gas. But he lauds the ban on surface-level discharge of coalbed wastewater, and the requirement that wastewater be re-injected into the ground at depths well below drinking-water aquifers.
Donald McInnes, president and CEO of Vancouver-based Plutonic Power Corp., says the energy plan reflects the public's desire for "no coal, no gas, no nuclear."
The Liberals, he says, have assured clean-power producers that their customer - BC Hydro - will come to them for more projects.
He expects BC Hydro's next call for proposals, expected this fall, to be as large or larger than last year's request, which resulted in 38 contracts.
McInnes adds the government has also further reinforced his firm's business plan by ruling out nuclear projects, requiring coal to be sequestered, and no longer regarding natural gas as clean.
"Knowing that 90 per cent of all electricity procured has to be green - and the province is really articulating its commitment to being (energy) self-sufficient by 2016 - gives us the faith to work on aggressively expanding our development plan to build the rest of the green-power corridor as fast as we can," says McInnes.
Plutonic is building three run-of-river hydroelectric projects in Toba Inlet on the Sunshine Coast under three of the power contracts awarded by BC Hydro last year.
The company also plans to propose new projects for Bute and Knight inlets in the same region when the provincial utility seeks more new projects later this year.
Matt Horne, a technical and policy adviser with the Pembina Institute, an environmental advocacy group, says the plan means B.C.'s electrical sector is better off than it was six months or two years ago.
"From a big-picture perspective, we're definitely very supportive of where the premier signalled he wants to go on greenhouse gases," says Horne.
But Horne questions how the energy plan can succeed when the Liberals are going "full speed ahead" on the Gateway transportation plan, which includes the twinning of the Port Mann bridge.
"I don't think all of the answers are in the plan," says Horne.
Dave Pryce, vice-president of Western Canada operations for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), says his group wants to discuss what the flaring-reduction plan entails. Government documents say it calls for routine flaring to be reduced 50 per cent by 2011 and completely eliminated by 2016.
"You can't eliminate flaring in every circumstance," says Pryce. "You need flares for emergency purposes and that sort of thing."
But CAPP says it still will work with the province on achieving its flaring-reduction goal. The group also wants to discuss the province's plans to renew royalty rebates in return for the construction of roads and pipelines, introduce a profit-based royalty system for unconventional gas projects, and create investment opportunities surrounding basins in the B.C. Interior and offshore.
Darcy Rezac, managing director of the Vancouver Board of Trade, which has wholeheartedly endorsed the energy plan, says Victoria has "tapped into a wellspring of public opinion" that supports climate-change protection measures from government.
While the economic impact has yet to be determined, history shows that companies that embrace conservation and an environmentally responsible agenda have done well, he adds.
"It's good business to turn out the lights at the end of the day," says Rezac, who adds that it's up to companies to develop green business while the province supports research and development and provides proper tax incentives.
B.C. is already a world green-energy leader, he adds, and will continue to thrive despite concerns about declining conventional energy supply.
"The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stone," says Rezac. "The Energy Age is not going to end because we've run out of oil."
(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)