First Nations and provincial politicians gathered at Beecher Bay near Metchosin on Tuesday to launch a pioneering project in sustainable energy.
John Rustad, B.C. minister of aboriginal affairs and reconciliation, announced a $400,000 grant to build an ocean thermal energy transfer system to heat Spirit Bay, a housing development already underway by the Sci’anew (Cheanuh) Beecher Bay band and its minority business partner, the non-profit Trust for Sustainable Development.
“When you think of the potential for the community it really is quite remarkable,” said Rustad. “And one of the most unique features is, of course, clean energy.”
Rustad said the money is from the First Nations Clean Energy Business Fund, created in 2010. So far, the fund has doled out $6.5 million in funding to more than 100 First Nations in B.C.
Also, $3.5 million has been approved for eight clean energy projects such as wind, solar, ocean thermal and run-of-the river electricity development.
Later, Rustad said the B.C. government hopes by assisting and partnering with First Nations in sustainable, clean energy projects, it can move forward with a reconciliation process, which was highlighted in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report to Parliament last week.
“Ultimately, this is what we are all trying to do, looking forward, working together, building a long term reconciliation and creating a brighter future for the children,” Rustad said.
The Beecher Bay money will be used to build an ocean thermal heat transfer energy service for the first 50 homes in the Spirit Bay development.
That heating system will be expanded as the community gets built out.
Kris Obrigewitsch, executive director of the Trust for Sustainable Development, said all new homes and buildings in Sprit Bay will be fitted with heat pumps, for warmth in winter and air-conditioning in summer.
Those home heat pumps will be tied in with a large scale heat exchanger that will use the ocean to operate its thermal exchange, said Obrigewitsch.
He said pipes that will be used to pump a heat transfer medium through the home heat systems have already been installed.
It’s hoped construction and installation of the ocean loop and its heat exchanger will begin by fall.
The energy made available from the ocean thermal exchange will be sold by a local utility company. The utility will be owned by the Beecher Bay Band and generate revenue by selling heat and cooling energy to the Spirit Bay homeowners and possibly beyond.
Spirit Bay, built on Beecher Bay land, will in about 10 years become a 100-acre, 600-home community, with homes priced at $259,000 and up.
The Spirit Bay project is 51 per cent owned by the band and 49 per cent owned by the Trust for Sustainable Development.
So far, three homes have been built. One is already occupied by its owners and two others are being used as show suites.
Beecher Bay Band Chief Russ Chipps said an ocean thermal exchange is a wonderful fit between modern technology and First Nations traditions.
Using heat-exchange technology to gather the warm and cooling temperatures from the ocean matches the way his people gathered salmon from the ocean without endangering the survival of the species.
The heat-exchange technology will harvest a resource, heat energy. But like his people’s fishing of salmon, it won’t threaten the ocean ecosystem.
“You can say it’s based on a traditional use of the water,” said Chipps.
“We are the salmon people,” he said. “We use the water to get our food, our medicine and now power.”
