Banking on batteries: Malahat Nation’s plans for energy self-determination could shore up B.C.’s grid

Light pushes through the cloudy October afternoon as George Harry walks up to Malahat Nation’s community freezer on southern Vancouver Island. Behind the silver padlock is a cherished supply of sockeye salmon that “you don’t really get that often,” he says of the red-fleshed fish whose populations fluctuate.

The freezer is just one of the nation’s tools for making future use of nature’s plenty. 

Another will soon sit steps away in an unremarkable grey shed the size of a small kitchen. If all goes as planned, the shed will soon house the nation’s new battery storage system, built to store electricity from the community’s growing fleet of solar panels for darker days.

The battery system will be made in the community, a 10-minute walk up a footpath.

That’s where the nation plans to build a 9,000-square-metre battery storage assembly plant in partnership with the Vancouver-based technology company Energy Plug. The plant will import ready-made lithium iron phosphate battery cells to be manufactured into storage systems designed for electricity systems in B.C. and beyond. 

Canada has seen a boom in battery manufacturing plants in recent years, particularly in Ontario and Quebec. But most focus on making batteries for electric vehicles. The Malahat Nation’s project will make batteries specifically for buildings and power grids.

The $75-million project, which will create about 210 jobs, aims to manufacture enough batteries to store one gigawatt-hour’s worth of energy, roughly enough to supply backup storage capacity to 91,000 homes. Those batteries could provide power during blackouts, or store power from home solar panels. The project will also build larger-scale storage options, helping utilities like BC Hydro balance power demand. 

“We want to be able to produce things that help people,” says Harry, community energy coordinator for Malahat Nation and former chief, who sees battery storage as a key part of a resilient energy supply.

Battery storage can act like a Swiss Army knife for electricity grids, a handy tool for fixing problems. It can smooth out fluctuating power from renewables like wind and solar, making them more efficient. 

The nation will be the majority owner of the battery storage plant. It’s in the process of securing funding and credit agreements, aiming to begin operations later next year. 

Kwatuuma Cole Sayers, executive director of Clean Energy BC, an industry association promoting clean energy use, says the project reflects “the evolution of Indigenous equity.” 

“First Nations want to be owners of industrial projects in their territories and they also want to be leading projects,” he says. “When that happens to be leading us to a new clean economy, it’s even better.”

Malahat Nation needs more power for economic growth 

As we head south down the road, walking parallel to the Saanich Inlet, Harry points to the large buildings to our right, their entrances framed by thick cedar posts. Among them are a health centre, a daycare, a gymnasium and a building that houses the nation’s environmental team, which recently started tracking whale populations with underwater microphones installed throughout the inlet. Each building sports a band of gleaming black solar panels on its roof. 

None of these buildings were here a decade ago, signalling the Malahat Nation’s booming growth. A newly opened 18-hectare business park now houses a French defence technology firm, a construction company, a fuel retailer and a company making biodiesel.

For Harry, the business park represents a critical step toward the nation’s broader goals, including creating long-term housing in the community. The nation currently has around 370 members, and roughly half live on reserve. Housing investments are critical if more members are to move there, combined with infrastructure upgrades to water, sewage — and electricity, since transmission lines hooked up to the community are almost at capacity.

“We’ve identified electrical servicing as one of the main bottlenecks for development plans,” Tristan Gale, Malahat Nation’s director of economic development, tells me. A major hurdle, he says, is that BC Hydro estimates it would cost the Malahat about $10 million to upgrade the powerline system that carries electricity to the community so it can receive more power. (BC Hydro was unable to respond to detailed questions from The Narwhal before a new government takes office following the final results of the B.C. election.) 

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All electricity grids are subject to a golden rule: they need to supply enough power to meet demand. Failure leads to brownouts and blackouts, something utilities work to avoid. So they design the system to handle “peak demand” — often during the evening in B.C, when people get home from work and turn on appliances. 

Batteries can help smooth out the peak by stashing power during non-peak hours. They also assist in other ways. By lowering the grid’s peak energy use, batteries can help utilities avoid costly transmission upgrades that might otherwise be required — making power cheaper. 

Think of battery storage like a rapid transit system added to a major highway; it gets more people — or in this case, energy molecules — where they need to go while reducing congestion on the highway, or the transmission line.

When the nation started to look at more affordable options to increase its electricity capacity, battery storage seemed promising. 

Gale says that’s partly because battery storage is aligned with the nation’s long-held plan for the sustainable use of its natural resources. 

“That means not relying on finite resources like fossil fuels, and finding ways to make use of the natural resources that are available on the lands,” he says. 

That’s when the nation started having conversations with Energy Plug, which was interested in opening a battery plant in Western Canada. “When we were introduced to Energy Plug we instantly recognized those aligned values,” Gale says. 

In August, the nation’s new partnership with Energy Plug, Malahat Battery Technologies Corp., broke ground on the future battery storage plant, including a blessing ceremony from Elders in the community. 

The future plant will import ready-made battery cells made in Asia, sourced in partnership with the Taiwanese company Enwind Power. From there, it will assemble those cells into five- and 100-kilowatt battery packs, which will be built into storage systems, ready to be used by homes, businesses or utilities. Broderick Gunning, Energy Plug’s president and CEO, says the company is working with BC Hydro to develop a new storage tool called the energy pole, which will attach directly to power lines. 

“We’ve got a lot of utility interest in that product on the global scale,” Gunning says. “Utilities have this light bulb go off and they’re like, ‘Wow, this can help us.’ ” 

Battery storage is still relatively new across Canada 

Keith Brooks, programs director for the non-profit group Environmental Defence, says adoption of grid-scale battery storage is “still in its infancy” across Canada. Yet that might be about to change. Ontario completed the largest battery storage procurement in Canadian history in the spring, purchasing more than 2,000 megawatts of storage capacity. Globally, battery storage in the power sector doubled last year, and the International Energy Agency expects another sixfold increase will be needed to reach global 2030 climate targets.

In the ecosystem of tools that utilities have at their disposal to meet customer demand, battery storage is among a growing contingent of smaller, more localized options. Sometimes called “distributed energy resources,” they include things like home solar panels, or water heaters set to activate during the night when power demand is low.

The distributed approach is a departure from historic energy planning in places like B.C., which has relied on costly, centralized, often controversial megaprojects like large hydro dams to store and generate energy. By localizing electricity systems, utilities can also cut down on energy loss that results from transporting power over large distances through transmission lines. Losses in Canada average about nine per cent, according to the International Energy Agency. 

“More demand-side solutions are key in terms of making our grid smarter,” Sayers from Clean Energy BC says, adding that a more responsive grid could play a key role in cutting carbon emissions by making renewables more reliable.

A report from the David Suzuki Foundation found Canada needs far more low-emission power to achieve its commitment to a net-zero electricity grid by 2035. 

Renewable energy sources like solar and wind are often the cheapest, fastest ways to make up the shortfall, but they come with a drawback; they only supply power when the conditions are right — when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. Fossil fuels like gas and coal can supply power anytime.

Adding a battery storage system to a solar farm or a wind power facility can help smooth out power fluctuations. “Battery storage makes the renewables more valuable,” Kate Harland, research lead in mitigation for the Canadian Climate Institute, says in an interview. When attached to a battery, renewables like solar and wind achieve many of the benefits offered by fossil fuels, but without the greenhouse gas footprint. TransAlta Corporation, for example, runs a battery storage facility next to one of its wind farms in Alberta. 

According to the International Energy Agency, batteries could play a major role in ratcheting down global carbon emissions; it estimates that under a net-zero scenario, 60 per cent of emissions reductions in the energy sector will be associated with batteries, “making them a critical element to meeting our shared climate goals.”

Malahat Nation will use house-made batteries to expand solar system 

The Malahat Nation plans to use its house-made batteries to expand its solar power system. So far, the nation has sent its excess solar power into BC Hydro’s grid through the utility’s self-generation program, but the nation’s solar power production will soon exceed the program’s limit of 100 kilowatts, and that leftover energy currently has nowhere to go.

“If you have solar, you need storage,” Harry says, “and you need to be able to run constantly with no worries.”

Harry says the nation is also interested in creating its own microgrid — a local electricity grid with enough power and storage to sustain itself, and potentially the businesses and communities surrounding it.

To support that vision, Gale says the nation plans to upgrade its own infrastructure to bring more power to its microgrid. The nation has a right of way to a decommissioned high-voltage power line, he says, and they plan to bring it back. 

“That’s a large project that’s probably next on the docket,” he says, “but the batteries really provide the bridge between what we need right now and having the resources to build out the larger scale infrastructure long-term.”

Because batteries can help lower the cost of clean energy, they could help make the transition from fossil fuels more affordable. 

According to the International Energy Agency, battery costs have fallen by 90 per cent since 2010. The agency expects costs for lithium ion batteries to fall by another 40 per cent by 2030. During Ontario’s call for battery storage capacity this year, a storage project powered by gas cost 40 per cent more than the battery projects.

Despite their climate benefits, batteries still have global consequences for people and ecosystems. 

The lithium iron phosphate batteries Malahat Battery Technologies plans to use for its battery packs, at least for now, are “somewhat new to the markets,” according to Jason Wang, a senior analyst with the non-profit Pembina Institute. The formulation doesn’t require cobalt, a critical earth mineral whose mining process is often linked to human rights abuses.  

But the project’s batteries will use lithium, whose supply chain has been linked to human rights abuses in China, including instances of forced labour in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. “We’re trying to steer clear from that,” Gunning says, adding Energy Plug has not yet announced which battery suppliers the project will use. Gunning notes transparency issues make it difficult to confirm entire supply chains.

New technologies are emerging, including batteries that use sodium instead of lithium and batteries that replace conventional batteries’ liquid electrolytes with ones that are solid. If combined, these technologies could reduce or eliminate the use of lithium and potentially mean batteries last for decades. But they’re not at a commercial scale yet. Gunning says his company is committed to researching novel technologies and figuring out how to use them over time. 

“Things change quickly, and we’re very on the pulse in respect to technology,” he says. 

Nation sees battery storage as step toward self-sufficiency 

Seen in the late afternoon, the Malahat battery storage plant site is a vast expanse of freshly tilled dirt and some rocks, set against the striking backdrop of Yos, also known as Malahat Mountain. A thin line of clouds circles the peak. The stillness contrasts with the flood of activity underway below. 

The nation has recently finished negotiating its treaty agreement with B.C. through the Te’mexw Treaty Association. It’s been a long, tough path, Harry says, but he’s hopeful changes will ensue. 

“We’re still run by the government,” he says. “Once treaty comes, we’ll be the government.” 

Harry sees battery storage as another step on the path toward self-sufficiency, in part because of the revenue it brings, but also for the energy options it offers. “Solar has come a long way,” he says. 

“My parents, they’re not worried about what I will have,” Harry says. “They’re worried about what their grandchildren will have.” 

“They look towards the future. I think that’s what really drives this place.”