The Ahousaht Nation has an ambitious plan to turn the water of a local creek into electricity and jobs. Diversifying the nation鈥檚 economy and building wealth, the $60-million project promises long-term benefits, if it can be built with minimal environmental side-effects.
Negotiating with Elemental Energy of Vancouver, the First Nation hopes to construct and operate a run-of-the-river power project on Bulson Creek. It could generate the same amount of electricity that powers Tofino and Ucluelet.
Although their effects on fish are unclear, run-of-river power projects produce power without the need for massive dams. They hold great potential as sustainable-energy alternatives.
Such projects generate electricity by using part of natural stream flows and natural elevation difference. Part of a stream is piped underground, then channelled downstream into one or more turbines. The water spins the turbines to generate electricity for the sa国际传媒 Hydro grid. The water is then put back into the stream.
On Bulson Creek, the intake would be at a 260-metre elevation, then the water would drop 160 metres to the generation site.
Out of the turbines would come about 50 gigawatt hours of electricity every year, enough to power 4,545 homes. At any given time, it would produce 15 megawatts.
鈥淭his project will employ about 30 to 40 workers from Ahousaht during construction for 21脷2 years, full time, which is super important to us. It will also, probably on an ongoing basis, employ four to six people in operations and maintenance,鈥� said Trevor Jones, CEO of the Ahous Business Corp.
It could mean $5 million to $7 million a year in revenue for Ahousaht after 20 years of debt-servicing payments are made.
A lot of work has to go into project before it gets off the ground, including detailed assessments of water flow and data on fish. The nation has been collecting flow data since last year, and must gather at least two years鈥� worth of information to create a baseline.
鈥淚t will show you how much power you can generate and it will also tell you how much water you must leave to have little or no impact on the environment,鈥� Jones said.
Although run-of-river seems like a low-impact way to generate power, we need more research as these projects unfold. Already, sa国际传媒 Hydro has agreements with 58 operational projects and another 11 are in development.
Yet the Pacific Salmon Foundation has warned that we don鈥檛 understand the full impact on salmon and trout. It鈥檚 in the interests of the province, the power companies and First Nations to fill in those gaps so run-of-river can fulfil its promise without damaging the environment.
The Bulson Creek project is just one of the ways the Ahousaht Nation wants to diversify its economy. It runs a campground on Meares Island and has plans to open a fuel station.
If all goes well, the people of Tofino and Ucluelet could flick on the lights with electricity from just up the creek.
