Syntaris Power

Vancouver, BC— Mike Wise, Vice President of Project Development for Syntaris Power was elected to the Independent Power Producers of British Columbia (IPPBC) Board of Directors on June 8th, one of 4 new Directors from a slate of 11 candidates. Read the rest of this entry »

No matter where one stands on the broader policy initiatives set out in the American Clean Energy and Security Act, there’s no debating that hydro-electricity is a renewable and clean energy source. All the more baffling is its omission from the House’s version of a renewable electricity mandate. The 1,200-page landmark bill called Waxman-Markey excludes both hydro power and nuclear power from standards set for utilities to bring down their carbon footprint.

The omission of nuclear is understandable since uranium, although plentiful now, will someday reach the end of its life cycle. Hydro power, though, uses turbines and the force of rushing water. This predominant source of electricity in Canada is a proven, nonpolluting renewable and effective source of electricity. It’s even recognized by environmentalists as a sustainable energy solution.

Hydro’s exclusion from the bill is both illogical and “astounding,” as Environment Minister Jim Prentice described it during a recent meeting with the Herald editorial board.

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B.C. New Democrats are backing away from their opposition to the government’s carbon tax and their call for an immediate moratorium on independent power projects (IPPs).

Premier Gordon Campbell couldn’t be more pleased by the decision announced by NDP Leader Carole James on Thursday.

“I think Ms. James is now trying to repair a party that was badly damaged by the fact they were expedient instead of principled,” the premier said Friday. “But they have been the most anti-environmental political party in the country.”

James said Friday the party’s “job is to make that tax more effective and more fair.”

Rob Fleming, the NDP’s environment critic, refused to use the word “moratorium” when asked several times by reporters at the legislature on Friday about the party’s stand on IPPs, instead calling for a more thorough environmental review of the controversial projects.

“There are all kinds of renewable energy applications in British Columbia right now, and I think some of them are very interesting,” he told reporters at the legislature.

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Backers of a hydro project north of here say it has all the attributes of making a valuable contribution to the province’s energy needs.

Syntaris Power wants to raise the level of Kinskuch Lake by building a small dam where water would normally flow into the Kinskuch River.

The resulting reservoir would be drawn down during winter and early spring high electricity demand months and built up again during late spring and summer.

Company engineer Mike Wise describes the project as valuable not only for its ability to provide power when most needed but by the height water would drop through a tunnel called a penstock before spinning electricity-producing turbines.

“This is a high-elevation lake with the ability to generate power on demand,” said Wise.

The distance and height the water would drop is called the head in the hydro business and the more there is the better because there’s more force to turn the turbines.

“Think of it as a pipeline with a generator at the other end,” said Wise of a 4.25km tunnel that will carry the water from the lake to the generating station. Once through the station, the water will flow into the Kinskuch River, a tributary of the Nass River, its original destination.

With a key part of the plan being the ability to store water, it’s not a typical run-of-river project in which water is diverted from a river or creek before being returned. And with a projected capacity of 76 megawatts it is one of the larger independent projects being promoted in the region.

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