Introduction


Abstract

Solar Power

In order to locate areas that are suitable for Solar Farm development in British Columbia a Multi Criteria Evaluation (MCE) was performed. Urban areas, parklands, and waterbodies were excluded from the possible areas considered due to the higher costs associated with building in these areas. There were five criteria that were deemed necessary to be evaluated in the MCE in order to determine suitable areas for solar farm development, these were slope, aspect, measured solar insolation values of the area, proximity to roads, and proximity to transmission lines. Subsequently, a sensitivity analysis was performed to verify the results of the MCE, and it is the areas identified from these combined results that are presented in the form of a Map.

Wind Power

To find the potential areas for wind mills in British Columbia a Multi Criteria Evaluation (MCE) has been conducted. Before the MCE could be conducted it was necessary to remove all non desirable areas – called exclusion areas. This included parks, urban areas, lakes etc. Three criteria were used for the MCE; distance to transmissions lines, distance to roads and wind speed. To incorporate the criteria in the MCE a cost surface must be constructed for each criterion. The cost surface is in raster format and divided in cells of 5 x 5 km and has a value ranging from 0 to 1, where 1 is the most desirable. The criteria were weighted with wind speed as most important and the MCE could be conducted. Cells with a value above 75 were considered most desirable and suggested as possible areas for wind mills. 

Hydropower

ArcGIS was used to locate potential Run-of-River (RoR) projects in BC. This was achieved by estimating both costs and benefits of potential RoR projects on BC streams. Costs were estimated as a function of distance from existing transmission lines and roads, and size of the power plant. Benefits were functions of produced energy, which in turn were a function of available flow and elevation drop in streams. The present value of net benefit for all potential projects were calculated and presented as maps. Social, environmental, and institutional barriers were considered in calculating such net benefits. These barriers included national parks, presence of anadromous fish species, and already existing small hydropower plants.


Background

As the awareness of global climate change increases it becomes more obvious that we are now in an era of transition. We must strive to achieve a full transition out of fossil fuels within the next decades if we want to avoid the threat of further environmental damage. Oil and gas will soon become scare and unaffordable, causing economies to crumble if they have not begun a transition to sustainable energy. The challenge is to develop new technologies to make use of the enormous potential of renewable green energy to build sustainable communities for the future in a post-carbon world.

In the light of current political events the urgency of rethinking energy plans has become even more apparent. In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011 several governments, including Germany and Italy, have decided to end to their nuclear programs. The ‘Arab Spring’ has accentuated the strategic importance of energy mix and the role of renewable energy in gaining more national autonomy.

Like many other industrial nations, Canada is facing a crossroad. Currently the production of electricity is contributing 17% of all greenhouse gas pollution in Canada which makes it more harmful to the environment than the oil sands or car traffic. Most of Canada ´s energy comes from fossil fuels while renewable energy provides about 16.5% of the country´s primary energy supply. Conventional hydro power provides about two-thirds of Canada’s renewable energy.  Many older power plants, particularly nuclear and coal, will soon be going off line. This presents an opportunity to replace them with more sustainable alternatives.[1]

We hope to determine the potential areas in British Columbia where IPP projects could be realized. We will focus on solar power, wind power and hydropower.

Solar Energy is a renewable resource and hence power production from this energy source is an excellent option. There are several benefits for selecting this as a means of energy production, such as the fact that the panels have 20-30 year warranties, there is a minimum amount of maintenance required by these systems once they are installed, and although energy production will be higher during clear days with direct sunlight, cloudy days will still produce power. [2] A more in depth discussion of the potential for Energy Production within British Columbia will be made within the Solar Energy Page. 

British Columbia has one of the highest potentials for wind energy in the world, but up to the year 2007 there was not a single wind turbine in operation in the whole of British Columbia. In 2007 the BC government made the commitment that 90 % of BC’s energy use would come from renewable energy sources by 2016 which opened up for wind energy and several wind farms were projected. By 2011 only three wind farms are in use and produce 247.5 MW per year, but this production is negligible compared to the total energy production from fossil fuels of 6.3 TW per year.[3] This shows the importance to find new suitable areas for wind mills in BC.

A run-of-river (RoR) hydropower facility diverts a portion of stream flows and uses the natural topography of the river (i.e., the drop in elevation) to generate electricity.  The remaining portion of the flow is not diverted, and is left in the original stream for environmental and social purposes. Currently there are 38 RoR facilities with a total installed capacity of 779 MW generating and an average annual energy of 3286 GWh in BC. [4]

Since 2002, the BC government has restricted BC Hydro from developing new power generation facilities. As part of this plan BC Hydro is asked to get new supplies from the private sector. This new source of electricity is referred to as Independent Power Production (IPP). As of April 2011, BC Hydro has 63 IPP agreements that represent about 25% of total power generation in the province. [5]  


Group members


Claudia Hehn
Rochelle Lougheed
Kristian Madsen:
Soheila Raoofi

Contact: Raoofis@interchange.ubc.ca

Acknowledgements

This project is part of the course GEOB370 Advanced Issues in GIScience at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.We would like to thank our professor, Brian Klinkenberg, who provided many useful suggestions for this project, as well as our teaching assitant, Alejandro Cervantes, and our lab supervisor, Jose Aparacio, for their time and patience in supporting us with numerous technical issues.


References
[1] http://www.bcsea.org/learn/get-the-facts/why-sustainable-energy
[2] http://www.saturnpower.ca/solar
[3] http://www.centreforenergy.com/FactsStats/Statistics.asp?Template=5,1
[4] http://www.bchydro.com/etc/medialib/internet/documents/planning_regulatory/iep_ltap/ror/resource_
options_report_2010.Par.0001.File.DRAFT_2010ResourceOptionsReport.pdf
[5] http://www.bcenergyblog.com/2011/04/articles/ipps/british-columbias-ipp-supply-with-updated-map/