Tag Archives: Solar in BC

Heightened need for clean energy prompts BC Hydro to put call out for new sources

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

BC Hydro will be issuing a call for new sources of renewable, emission-free electricity, with applications to open in the spring of next year.

The call out, the first to come from BC Hydro in 15 years, has been prompted by an accelerated need for clean energy, said Premier David Eby on Thursday, at a media event at the Tsleil-Waututh Nation administration building in North Vancouver.

Eby said an additional 3,000 gigawatt hours per year of renewable energy, enough electricity to power 270,000 homes in B.C, is needed by 2028 – three years earlier than previously estimated.

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Solar Panels on Quadra Elementary School

It has been a month since the Quadra ICAN Energy Efficiency Team achieved its goal of having 14 solar panels installed on the roof of Quadra Elementary School. 

According to Mike Gall, one of the participants in this project, they will only supply about 5% of the school’s needs – but that is not their purpose. 

This solar array is meant to be an educational tool. Students and the general public, will soon be able to go online and monitor the performance of the solar panels that a typical house on Quadra or Cortes Island would need. 

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Quadra ICAN obtains charitable status

The Quadra Island Action Network (Quadra ICAN) was given charitable status on January 20th, 2022. 

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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!”

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Heiltsuk First Nation doing ‘heart work’ to tackle climate crisis

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

It’s hard work, but it’s heart work. 

That’s the maxim of the climate action team helping bring the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) First Nation’s vision of clean energy sovereignty to life. 

The small, remote coastal nation in Bella Bella on British Columbia’s wild central coast is in the last stage of shaping a three- to five-year clean energy plan to shift its dependence on diesel and increase the community’s climate resiliency by focusing on sustainable solutions using the sun, wind, earth and water. 

Continue reading Heiltsuk First Nation doing ‘heart work’ to tackle climate crisis