Tag Archives: BC Hydro on Quadra

Cost of Climate Change

Hydro says BC is experiencing worse storms and the cause is climate change

Editor’s note: By the time it was over on Nov 23, about 400,000 customers lost their power and CityWest could not provide internet to Cortes, Denman or Hornby Islands for two days.

With winds of up to 159 km/hr the ‘bomb cyclone’ hitting Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland is far from the worst we’ve seen in recent years. As of 3:43 AM this morning, 272,000 people had been deprived of power and that number is still increasing. According to BC Hydro, “Climate change has led to an increase in extreme weather events in British Columbia, and this is something BC Hydro has been preparing extensively for.”

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Energy

The Expanding Local Market For Solar Power

A Cortes Island based solar company has been installing more systems that tie into the grid. 

There is a lot of potential for solar energy production in British Columbia. It has been largely untouched because of the province’s reliance on hydro-power and natural gas. As of October 2023, BC Hydro had 8,500 net metering customers with a combined solar capacity of 71 MW. This was only a fraction of the 4,609.5 MW of solar capacity tied to Canada’s grid that year. 

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Weather

SRD: Individuals and corporations helping out during recent cold snap

How our local government works

At their January 12th meeting, the SRD Board had some good reports about the way individuals and corporations helped out during the recent cold snap.

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Environment

Vancouver Island prepares to slip and slide after snow dump

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Colleen McDougall feels like she hasn’t slept since Christmas.

The Quadra Island resident works with a local company responsible for clearing snow from many of the public parking lots in the community.

Thursday she was shovelling pathways for the local bank after another storm hit the Vancouver Island region overnight, dumping at least a foot of snow.

Continue reading Vancouver Island prepares to slip and slide after snow dump →
Energy

Quadra ICAN asks ‘What can we do when the grid goes down?’

When Jan Zwicky talked about the need to be independent of the grid, she referred to a 60 second power outage at 4 AM last year. Zwicky wasn’t aware there was a problem until she went into the basement three days later. Her freezer, which had been packed with food, was still off. Most of the contents were ruined. 

Zwicky said she is not dependant on a computer and has a back-up system that can keep the lights on, “ But boy, I don’t want that freezer to fall apart!”

Continue reading Quadra ICAN asks ‘What can we do when the grid goes down?’ →