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Hydro Project to Offset Whistler Olympic energy Needs
Construction began in September on a
hydroelectric project that will offset the
total annual energy consumption at Whistler
Blackcomb resort in British Columbia, in time
for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The Fitzsimmons Creek Hydro Project,
located entirely within Whistler Blackcomb’s
operating area, will produce 33. 5 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year — the equivalent
of powering the ski resort’s winter and summer
operations including 38 lifts, 17 restaurants,
269 snowguns, all company-owned customer-service facilities and mechanical infrastructure,
and enough to run about 3,000 homes.
The 7.5-megawatt hydro project is being
developed by Fitzsimmons Creek Hydro Ltd.,
part of a joint venture between Innergex Renewable Energy and Ledcor Power Group. Whistler
Blackcomb is directly involved in the construction and environmental stewardship of the
project.
“Climate change is the No. 1 issue for a ski
resort,” said Arthur DeJong, Whistler’s mountain
planning and environmental resource manager.
He points out that the resort, situated along a
major transmission axis from big hydroelectric
dams in the interior of the province, has always
purchased carbon-free power from BC Hydro.
“But every green electron we can produce is one
less fossil-fuel electron generated elsewhere. We
have mountains and a lot of precipitation, so
microhydro is our best opportunity.”
Any resort with a snowmaking system has
potential for microhydro, because when snowmaking isn’t in progress the pipes can carry
water downhill into a turbine. “We already
have a test microhydro plant located next to
the Symphony lift, and we’ve allocated $2 million to optimize all our snowmaking pipes for
hydro,” DeJong said, and he estimated that the
snowmaking system might eventually make
power for about 750 homes.
Fitzsimmons Creek is already tied extensively into Whistler Blackcomb’s snowmaking
system, and much of the area that will need
together, Blackcomb Mountain (left) and
Whistler Mountain (right) cover 8,171
acres ( 3,307 hectares), with average annual snowfall of 33. 5 feet ( 10. 2 meters). New
hydroelectric system headpipe will run
between the red dots on the photo and
provide all power for mountain operations
during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
raNdy LiNcKs
to be developed runs along an existing access
road for Whistler Blackcomb’s operations. The
project will not require above-ground hydro
lines, and the lines can travel underground in a
previously disturbed area.
The Fitzsimmons Creek Hydro Project will
have a single turbine with a capacity of 7. 5
megawatts, and the power generated by the
project will be sold to BC Hydro. The project
will be among the first to use BC Hydro’s Standing Offer Program, created under the provincial
government’s 2007 Energy Plan.
Whistler has a permanent population of
about 10,000. An additional 40,000 people are
expected to attend the Olympic games.
Ledcor CMI Limited is the contractor for
the project and is the major contractor for
other hydro projects in the Sea to Sky corridor
Continued from page 16
energy & Climate Change Summit at the DNC
standards and fund energy upgrades for busi-
nesses and consumers.
l Success will depend upon cooperation
among all the players. Wirth noted that the
executive from Peabody coal advised: “Just give
us the rules to follow.”
l The transition from a high-carbon econ-
omy to a low-carbon economy will present eco-
nomic opportunity for those ready to grasp it.
l The energy crisis is due in large part to
an enormous failure to govern. Zero planning
for an energy future results, for instance, in the
fragility of today’s transmission grid and the
pitiful federal commitment to basic research and
development.
The Rocky Mountain Roundtable convened
at the urging of Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and the Denver Convention Host Committee. Ten lively
symposia brought key decision makers and
analysts together. Fossil fuel interests sat next
to renewable energy advocates, governors next
to congressional representatives members and
public activists. See 2008rmr.org.
— Brad Collins
between Vancouver and Whistler. Construction is underway and the project is expected
to be operational by 2010. “Olympic carbon
neutrality has to be based on offsets,” DeJong
said. “The carbon component of the aviation
segment alone is huge.”
Solar electric generation plays a small role in
ski resort operations, usually powering remote
communications and small buildings like lift
operator stations. Whistler’s longer-term plans
for renewable energy include the mountains’
other vast resource, wind. “We get a lot of snow,
which means a lot of storms,” he said. “Wind
at the summit can blow 200 kilometers an hour
(124 mph). There isn’t a large wind turbine
made that can work in that environment. So
we have meteo towers built lower down to find
the sweet spots where we can get dependable
wind power. We had hoped to have a wind farm
in operation for the Olympics, but we may simply have a test turbine operating by then.” One
huge advantage: Every road up the mountain
already has a buried 25-kilovolt transmission
line to carry power to the ski lifts. Those cables
can as easily run power back down the mountain from wind turbines located near the tops
of appropriate lifts.
Whistler’s parent company, Intrawest Corp.,
operates 10 major ski resorts across North America. “We will push for renewable energy at all of
them,” DeJong said. “We have power transmission and we know how to build towers on the
mountains. We have the infrastructure. In the
future, wind turbines will be common.”
— Seth Masia
