Mark Startup introduced speaker Jamie Houssian and his presentation, "The Future and Present of Renewable Energy in Canada".
Jamie started by letting us know that he grew up with Rotary attending events with his grandfather who was a Rotarian.
His presentation shared some of his experiences from the last 10 years that he has worked in the renewable energy space. Elemental Energy is a locally based Vancouver company that Jamie's Dad (Joe Houssian) started in 2008. It is still a family-run business.
It is interesting to note that 2016 (the latest statistics available) had more renewable energy installations around the world than conventional energies. There are three types of renewable energy that are most prevalent now:
- Wind
- Solar
- Hydro
Elemental Energy acquired a wind farm in Newfoundland 10 years ago with 9 large turbines. This led them to purchasing another wind farm in Nova Scotia. British Columbia does have wind farms, 5 large ones and 3 smaller ones.
Hydro is how the vast majority of electricity is produced. Elemental Energy is the owner and operator of Box Canyon Hydro which is a 16 MW run of river hydro project located in southwest British Columbia. The project has a 40 year Electricity Purchase Agreement with BC Hydro and achieved commercial operation in January 2016. Box Canyon is in the Traditional Territory of the Squamish Nation, a valued partner on the project. The prime production is in the spring and fall and is profitable. The long-term contract with the utility company (BC Hydro) makes it possible to secure good financing with a 80:20 debt to equity ratio.
British Columbia doesn't have enough sun, with the current solar technologies, to make it more prominent here. The price of solar energy is coming down making it more affordable; it was $5/watt and is now near $1/watt. The first Elemental Energy solar project was in southern Alberta, the Brooks Solar Project. It was the first utility-scale solar project in Western Canada. Brought online in 2017, Brooks Solar is an innovative project with a long-term corporate power purchase agreement. It has 49,800 solar panels covering 75 acres.
British Columbia will see it coming, especially in the east of the province where there is more sun. Currently the best places in Canada are in southern Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Other forms of renewable energy, geothermal, wave, etc., are still niche technologies. It is wind and solar that have taken the lion's share of adoption.
The renewable energy industry is provincially mandated. BC is very slow adopting the technologies. Site C dam, for one, puts a bit of a damper on private investment in the industry. The demand for electricity is quite flat so there is no need for a great push to increase availability.
In other areas of Canada -- Ontario with the newly elected government has put a damper on growth. Alberta & Saskatchewan are very active and are growing the industry.
Elemental Energy is currently working on a large wind farm in Saskatchewan. The Caribean Islands are also an attractive location for future growth.
There are a number of challenges facing those in the renewable energy industry including permitting. Every level of government (provincial & municipal) has its own rules. It can take 1 - 8 or 9 years to get a project started. The amount of capital available is very limited and is fought over by a number of enterprises ranging from tiny local private ones to huge international ones.
Jamie closed by commenting on how it is certainly an amazing time to be in this industry. It is very satisfying to try to make a positive impact in dealing with climate change.
Gregg has over 20 years experience as a counsellor (clinical, career, transition), adult educator, consultant, and business owner my background bridges the counselling, personal development and HR worlds. He is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) certified through the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors, holds the Certified Human Resource Professional and Certified Career Development Practitioner designations, and has a Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology and a Bachelors in Business Administration.
