Innergex investing in all kinds of renewable energy

Richard Blanchet is the senior vice president for the western region at Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. and In recent history Innergex made a major acquisition of Cloudworks Energy in British Columbia, “We’ve been expanding the past 11 years, especially in British Columbia, and today 49 percent of revenues for Innergex are coming from B.C..” Innergex is generating power from projects spread over three provinces. and each jurisdiction has a concentration on First Nation economic development as the “core part of our development.”

In B.C., Innergex is operating 9 run-of-river renewable energy projects and presently engaged in the construction of two new projects “pipeline development of, and two projects in run of river renewable energy for 178 MWh. “We are very busy and these two new run-of-river projects together represent $270 million investment in BC,” said Blanchet. The really important statistic is the employment situation with First Nations. First Nations occupying well over 40 percent of the jobs in the largest construction project. company. “We are deeply engaged in First Nations training and capacity building and the fact is we have second and third generations of First Nations in our projects. These folks are advanced and moving up the ladder into skilled jobs, providing mentorship, building the social licensing (or social capital) of their communities.”

Innergex takes pride in their long record of successful First Nation partnerships, “and we look at the long term plans for First Nations in these partnerships toward sustainable development of energy projects and what the projects mean in these communities.” Communities are transforming in very positive directions like the Douglas First Nation who took on a hydro project with Cloudworks at the beginning of the last decade. “These projects are building the business activities in local communities through sub-contracting and business building. A good example is the Umbata Falls hydro project in Ontario with Pic River Ojibway, 51 percent owned by the First Nation and opened for power generation in 2009,” says Blanchet. “Here we are starting to see the benefits to these communities.”

Founded in 1990, Innergex formed in anticipation of a call for independent power production by Quebec Hydro. “The first call for private power production in Quebec came in 1991,” and Innergex was successful and expanded to Ontario, then B.C., then the USA in early 2000. “We have an office in B.C. with 30 staff, nine projects in operation in B.C.. In Ontario we have three four operational projects and in the USA one.” In Quebec they run seven hydro projects and five wind farms.

Blanchet says, “The First Nation aspect has been a key success in our development. It was during the first few projects in Quebec that this came to be at the centre of Innergex core values. We asked ourselves, what is in it for the First Nations? These communities will see the impact in construction and will see change occur in their communities and these communities must have something in return.”

In B.C. presently, the Kwoiek Creek Hydro Project is under construction near Lytton in the Fraser Canyon, “an area that has been bereft of opportunity with downturns in forestry, but now we have a $180 million investment underway with 90 plus jobs.” There are new skilled workers, and money is being spent with on-site training that will be opening the doors to employment on other projects. Blanchet notes, “And that's the thing about these projects, they are capital intensive.  It's a huge commitment in up-front costs while operational costs are low and renewable energy flows for decades. Water rentals are becoming an ongoing expense paid to the province and apparently the province of B.C. has started arranged to share an important part the water rental revenues they receive from us revenue-sharing with the First Nations in the province to share an important part something like 70 percent of provincial water rentals.”

The future of Innergex is based on building partnerships based on core values of integrity, responsibility, transparency, teamwork, and resource-sharing. “Most projects involve First Nation in the review process, and we provide capacity for land use studies and other background proceedings. These projects are long term and we obtain financing from investors like pension funds. These investors like the stability of renewable energy.” 

Innergex did a solar project recently in Ontario, “33 MWh came into operation in Ontario, and that's a new one. We arrayed the solar panels on 300 acres of non-arable land.” Blanchet came to the west coast to work in Vancouver eight years ago, “I commuted from Quebec for the first two years,” he laughs.

“Things are advancing very well in the Fraser Canyon. We built a tram to transport building materials, and the neat aspect of the tram is the way it travels from reserve to reserve at Kanaka Band.” This tram may have a future since they had been losing access to their side of the river, it’s a long drive and under certain conditions it is a long with very bad driving conditions. Presently they are pouring concrete at power house (on-reserve), and at site the construction of penstock underway, with the transmission line under construction. Innergex expects Kwoiek to be generating electricity beginning in October 2013. 

A new array for gathering hydro power

The EnCurrent Turbine patented by New Energy Corp. of Calgary, Alberta, is making the rounds in North American waters and the system is proving to be a great adaptation in all kinds of high-flow water systems like Calgary city water outflows, steep Alaskan rivers, high-flow tidal currents on the Inside Passage of Vancouver Island, and icy winter waters of Manitoban rivers.

“We put a 5KWh system in the Ruby River in Alaska. Initially they called for 2.5 KWh but our system was able to pull out that much more electricity from the river current,” said Clayton Bear, one of the principals of New Energy Corporation.

“In Manitoba we tested year-round. At present we are looking at two things: further expansion in Alaska and access to the Rural Electrification Program in B.C.,” said Bear, “which is mostly First Nations accessing the program.”

Elsewhere in the country Clayton attended a conference this spring in Moncton looking into the potential for energy in the Maritimes. “The conference was looking at big projects in the Bay of Fundy. Many companies are looking because there is so much power in that water. The tide rises 10 m per second. It’s an incredible amount of energy.”

The conference showed that Bay of Fundy presents many unresolved technical challenges. The generators as yet cannot withstand the beating of that much water. “They are talking about smaller projects in the immediate future using estuaries with high tidal flows off the bay.”

Meanwhile Bear and business partner Robert Moll have EnCurrent Turbines arrayed in five, ten and 25 KWh systems in Canoe Pass, Manitoba, and Alaska on the Yukon River. The next phase for New Energy is to take their tidal project in Canoe Pass (near Quadra Island on the B.C. coast) to the 250 KWh scale with an array of EnCurrent Turbines. The ultimate goal is to extract five to MWh out of the tidal flow around Quadra Island.

At OREG (Ocean Resource Energy Group) Chris Campbell noted the province is organizing a series of regional meetings with First Nations in 2009 and meanwhile the federal government has put some money into an ocean wave energy project with SyncWave in Ahousaht, a semi-remote First Nation community found outside Tofino in the Nuu chah nulth Nation.