The plan to protect an area five times the size of Nova Scotia
In this week’s newsletter, reporter Emma McIntosh talks about a trip to far northern Ontario...
The rain comes down in a dense mist as John Ebell shows off the construction site of the Nicknaqueet River Hydro project, high on a hillside above the Wannock River in Rivers Inlet, a fjord on the central coast of B.C.
It’s the perfect weather, he says, to illustrate why a small-scale hydroelectric project is so perfect for the area.
“There’s a lot of rainfall here, and there’s a lot of mountains,” Ebell, project manager with the Barkley Project Group, told The Narwhal (formerly DeSmog Canada). “So we have drop, and we have rainfall. That’s a perfect combination for hydropower.”
The river below is home to all five Pacific species of salmon, including some of the biggest chinook in the world. So traditional hydropower — with a dam, a reservoir and inherent risks to spawning grounds — was not acceptable to the community.
They decided on run-of-river, a less intrusive method that involves diverting some of the river’s flow to power a turbine, then returning it to the source.
“This project will displace 97 per cent of the community’s energy needs on an annual basis,” Ebell said.
“The Wuikinuxv Nation is setting a great example demonstrating renewable energy. They’re showing that it’s clean and it’s feasible and it’s possible to displace diesel with renewable energy.”
From the air, what stands out is the water. Rivers and streams too numerous to count, winding through a vast expanse of peatlands and forests,...
Continue readingIn this week’s newsletter, reporter Emma McIntosh talks about a trip to far northern Ontario...
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