RE: Site C to pay for itself over 70 years.
In his letter, Dave Conway from BC Hydro defends the 70 year economic life of Site C but does not indicate that private sector hydro projects also have the same economic life span. BC Hydro chooses not to offer contracts longer than 40 years to private sector power producers. If it did, the costs between public and private sector hydro producers would be comparable.
While the cost of borrowing money using the public purse might be cheaper than for private sector companies, if one uses the private sector, the risk is transferred to them to deliver on the project.
Mr. Conway's letter wrongly references wind and run-of-river sources of power as intermittent sources of power and therefore not available to meet peak demand.
This is a fallacy that is being disproven daily around the world.
The wind may not be blowing in one locale but it will be on the next ridge.
Of all places, B.C. is the perfect opportunity to use the BC Hydro storage system integrated with all manner of cost effective renewables and some natural gas generation.
We should be working together, public and private sectors, to deliver clean cost-effective electricity to all B.C. rate payers.
Paul Kariya
Executive director, Clean
Energy Association of B.C.
Vancouver
