There were times over the last five years, when Chief Russell Myers Ross wondered whether his dream of creating a solar farm would ever become a reality.

There were studies and more studies, funding applications, community discussions and back and forth talks with BC Hydro and the provincial government. Then there were little hitches, such as deciding on the Riverwest Sawmill site, 80-kilometres west of Williams Lake, and then discovering that one parcel was partially owned by another company.

“We had to find a way to make it 100 per cent our ownership … It took $80,000 to sort of buy them out,” Myers Ross said.

Once construction started, with apprentices from the six Tsilhqot’in communities learning the trade, the weather refused to cooperate, even though the Chilcotin is among B.C.’s top five solar hotspots. Instead of the expected sun, torrential rains brought monsoon conditions to the area in July as construction workers tried to lay cables in muddy trenches.

“You feel like it’s never going to be done,” said Myers Ross, vice-chair of Tsilhqot’in National Government and chief of Yunesit’in First Nation.

The Tsilhqot’in Solar Farm. Photo: EcoSmart

Project granted 25-year power purchase agreement with BC Hydro

Last month the 3,456 panel solar farm held its grand opening and is now waiting for BC Hydro to complete the hookup so power from the sun can flow into the grid. 

The Tsilhqot’in company that oversaw the project, Dandzen Development Corporation, has a 25-year electricity purchase agreement with BC Hydro. 

Susie Rieder, BC Hydro spokesperson said there is not yet a firm date for “completion of the interconnection process.”

The solar farm is one of five shovel-ready projects with “significant Indigenous Nations involvement” approved last year as part of a benefit agreement with BC Hydro. The program was suspended indefinitely when, following approval of the Site C dam on the Peace River, the province ordered BC Hydro to reconsider its power procurement policies.

Myers Ross is happy that the Tsilhqot’in project squeezed in under the wire and, even without the final connection and despite the construction challenges, he is breathing a sigh of relief. 

“This is a really rewarding one for me personally,” he told The Narwhal.

Chief Russell Myers Ross. Photo: Tsilhqot’in National Government / Facebook

“This is the first project to generate our own source of revenue for our Tsilhqot’in organization and the community, which is significant for our overall goal of self-sufficiency,” he said.

The solar farm, with panels lined in 216 sections on a two-hectare site, will provide 1.25 megawatts, creating 1,500 megawatt hours of power annually, which is enough to power about 135 homes.

The project is expected to generate about $175,000 a year in annual revenue.

“It’s not a big moneymaker. It is sort of modest, but it gets us on our way. It’s a big accomplishment and it is one of the first building blocks to getting revenue and being able to use the money where we want to allocate it, with no strings attached,” Myers Ross said.

Project entirely Indigenous owned and operated

The project is the largest solar farm of its kind in B.C. and the only one that is 100 per cent owned and operated by a First Nation.

The final result is “pretty impressive,” said Gabe Pukacz, a Yunesit’in councillor and construction manager for the project.

Specialists and companies familiar with solar installations, such as EcoSmart, were hired to help with technical aspects, but many of the skills were learned by the on-the-ground workers as the job progressed, Pukacz said.

“It was pretty good. The workers made life easy … All my labourers were Tsilhqot’in,” he said.

Now, everyone is waiting for the hookup. Pukacz said.

“It will be interesting to find out what the capabilities of producing power will be during the least efficient sunlight hours in November,” he said.

‘A huge economic win for our nation’

Chief Joe Alphonse, Tsilhqot’in National Government tribal chair, hopes the solar farm inspires other Indigenous communities — in Canada and around the world — to look at clean power opportunities.

“Energy and electricity has been lacking in the territory for a long time, despite one of the longest stretches of hydro in Canada, so we welcome the opportunity for business and to improve the well-being of our people,” Alphonse said in a news release.

Chief Joe Alphonse of the Tl’etinqox Nation stands outside the band office in Anaham, B.C. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

In B.C., Indigenous led solar projects include plans by the Upper Nicola Band for a huge solar farm on the Quilchena Reserve and the T’Souke First Nation on Vancouver Island that has been providing solar power to homes on the reserve for more than a decade.

Even with power expected to be generated by Site C, there is increasing evidence that more renewable energy sources will be needed as B.C. makes the transition to clean energy. A University of Victoria study, released this week, found that in order to electrify transportation, which produces one third of the province’s greenhouse gas emissions, the province will need to generate up to 60 per cent more electricity.

In a move in that direction, the provincial government announced this week that, as part of its CleanBC program, $16.5-million will be available to remote, diesel-dependent communities to help with capital costs of renewable electricity projects. Most of the communities eligible to apply for Renewable Energy for Remote Communities funds — which are available through Coast Funds and the Fraser Basin Council — are Indigenous and off-grid.

For the Tsilhqot’in and others living in the surrounding area, the solar farm will beef up the weak 250-kilometre power line that runs from Williams Lake to Tatla Lake, which has prevented some industries from locating to the area and has forced some businesses to partially rely on diesel generators.

Other projects may follow as the Tsilhqot’in Nation Government is currently creating a clean energy plan, looking at the territory and considering what might be available from micro-hydro, geothermal and biomass.

The push for economic independence comes in the wake of the 2014 landmark title case, when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Tsilhqot’in hold Aboriginal title to about 1,750 square-kilometres of land.

The Tsilhqot’in solar farm on the former site of the Riverwest Sawmill, 80-kilometres west of Williams Lake. Photo: Kai Nagata

Other economic development projects under consideration include boosting tourism in Xeni Gwet’in, a mobile concrete batch plant to help with housing and infrastructure construction and a chip mill.

The need to look for new avenues of revenue that fit with Indigenous culture and traditions has been underlined by the Tsilhqot’in in light of crashing caribou populations, lack of salmon and hunting restrictions on moose following the 2017 wildfires that saw wildlife populations reduced or moving to other areas.

“The solar farm is a huge economic win for our nation,” Alphonse said.

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If you live in the Okanagan or Kootenays and dream of putting solar panels on your roof, FortisBC has a proposition for you.

The private utility is proposing to build a 240-kilowatt solar array north of Kelowna — and is inviting its 170,000 electricity customers to rent any number of the 720 new solar panels.

If this pilot project moves forward (the B.C. Utilities Commission will decide by the end of the year), the Ellison Community Solar project will be the province’s first solar facility owned and operated by a utility. If approved, it could be built by the end of 2018.

The company says panel renters will have the satisfaction of supporting solar energy, and at the same time, receive the energy output as a credit on their monthly electricity bills. This without the work of putting panels up on the roof.

But for this solar business model to be a success, FortisBC will not only need to get customers to rent the panels, they will need to confront an awkward question that has emerged during the public comment segment of the BCUC regulatory process that ended last Thursday.

Why is the utility building a solar project in the first place?

Tough Questions About Need for More Power in B.C.

On paper, FortisBC does not appear to need a solar farm.

In its recent filings to the regulator, the company confirmed that the project is not a required energy resource within its existing “resource stack;” FortisBC is in fact viewing the project in isolation of its long-term electric resource plan, “since the energy it will produce is not required to meet customer load.”

They concede the project “would not be built” if it had to follow FBC’s long term plan criteria used to select the optimal set of resources to meet FBC’s load. In other words, if they needed new generation to meet a deficiency in their generation, this project would not be a candidate to fill the void.

So why build new generation then?

FortisBC spokesperson Nicole Bogdanovic says the project is about providing choice. Beginning in 2015 the company reached out and surveyed their customers, and found a strong interest in solar energy.

“People see solar as something they want to get involved in, and they want to grow this industry for a variety of reasons. We want to be there to help them.”

A news release from FortisBC adds that the project will enable the company to gather important information on the installation, operation, and maintenance of community solar arrays.

“This will allow us to make decisions about the potential to expand this program.”

Industrial Users Come out Swinging

The industrial users group (IUG) of FortisBC have come out swinging against the project — their submission to the regulator asks that the BCUC reject the project.

Among many reasons for this they say there is no evidence that any greenhouse gas emission reductions or any other environmental benefits will result from the project.

That despite the likely assumption among solar renters that the opposite is true.

“FortisBC should not be permitted to rely on this view of customers that a solar facility provides environmental benefits when it may not, and in the absence of need for new resources, probably does not.”

When FortisBC was pressed to provide numbers on the environmental benefits of the project [e.g., projected greenhouse gas emission reductions], spokesperson Bogdanovic offered the following: “The reality is, most of our energy needs are met through hydro, so if this [project] offsets greenhouse gases, I think it’s more of a philosophical decision for our customers that feel solar is a cleaner energy source and a thing that we are developing in B.C.”

BC’s First Utility-Owned #Solar Project Would Allow Citizens to Rent Solar Panels https://t.co/kfbz2R0t0U @FortisBC @BCSEA #bcpoli

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) October 10, 2017

Acceptable Risk and Future Need

In its September 28 submission to the regulator, the industrial users group (which did not respond to calls for an interview) takes issue with the fact that all FortisBC ratepayers must ultimately bear the risk of a project the utility admits it does not need.

In the event that the revenue from the rental customers does not cover the cost of the project, writes the group, “FortisBC proposes to recover the cost of such generation from all customers.”

Tom Hackney, Policy Director at the BC Sustainable Energy Association (BCSEA), a non-profit that promotes sustainable energy, says this is true, but counters that on the basis of the project cost (around $960,000), the risk is not an issue.

“On the basis of size, there’s little price risk to ratepayers.”

Hackney’s association has joined with the Sierra Club of B.C. to jointly support the project moving forward.

“This [project] is pioneering, and in the event that this model works, it could start to have a big shift on the grid.”

Hackney explains that B.C.’s total current energy mix (including transportation, industry, etc.) is about 25 per cent electricity, primarily from hydro, and 75 per cent fossil fuels.

If there is a move in society to electrify all of its energy use, he says, we are going to have a real need for renewable energy like solar in the future.

“In that kind of future context, putting solar on your roof, or having some proxies of that [like renting solar] could start to make sense.”

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