Oceanic Wind Energy Inc V.NKW.H

Commentary

[BayWall]

Alex Botta 

(March 24, 2022) National Observer

The obvious solution is to subsidize green hydrogen initiatives, and a host of other clean energy and conservation projects.

About a decade ago North America's largest offshore wind farm was proposed in Hecate Strait just east of Haida Gwaii. The Naikun project was never built mainly because BC Hydro wouldn't offer a rate that would allow the private developer to break even, let alone profit. Some respondents from the Haida Nation also expressed discomfiture with the wind towers resting on bases drilled into the seabed, even though zero emission power would be available for Haida Gwaii as a replacement for its diesel generators. In 2020 Oceanic entered into an agreement to sell its project interests to Northland Power Inc., an international player.

This is where the federal government should enter the picture. There are a couple of opportunities, the easiest and quickest would have been to offer a top up to BC Hydro's questionably inadequate power credit rates . Another, albeit more difficult but far more advantageous to society and First Nations, would be to build a smart clean power corridor / network and off to buy the power from projects like Hecate and sell it back to the grid at cost plus rates at key intertie points, or to export it for profit to share with the project owners and the province.

Ironically, a clean power corridor across provincial boundaries and in federal easements already has the legal precedence of TMX and therein should survive any legal challenge by pro-oil provinces.

Wind power is becoming a true giant. There are turbines that are so efficient they can now crank out double digit megawatts at peak times. Off shore wind turbines are now being built on floating bases capable of stabilizing themselves even in the worst storms, not unlike small versions of ballasted offshore oil drilling platforms -- but without the filth and pollution. A large offshore wind project north of Vancouver Island could power half the island, with an undersea cable connection to an expanded Island transmission grid, possibly with excess transmitted across the nation via the national smart grid using direct current (has minimal losses from line resistance).

Wind power has been criticized for using an enormous amount of concrete and steel. However, it's possible to make an offshore wind platform from green steel alloy formulated for anti-corrosion properties and a tower assembled from sections pre-manufactured from mass timber and joined on site with internal steel fasteners and a weather and water tight "jacket" on the outside. Laminated timber towers will weigh a lot less than sections made from steel or concrete. Carbon fiber blades are also now being manufactured to be 100% recycled.