BC's Massive "Site C" Dam gets go ahead

Denscity · #1 Posted **Dec 17, 2014, 8:08 PM**

This huge project when completed is said to power the equivalent 450 000 homes or 8% of BC's total electricity needs. Also said to be BC's largest infrastructure project ever?! Not sure how to post news releases so if Metro or Cranespotter could help in that regard that would be awesome.

milomilo · #2 Posted **Dec 17, 2014, 9:37 PM**

$8.8 billion - that's not cheap! $20,000 per house powered - that seems absurdly high?

Denscity · #3 Posted **Dec 17, 2014, 11:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by milomilo

$8.8 billion - that's not cheap! $20,000 per house powered - that seems absurdly high?

Ya im not sure of where all this cost is going. Does seem uber expensive.

Xelebes · #4 Posted **Dec 17, 2014, 11:54 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by milomilo

$8.8 billion - that's not cheap! $20,000 per house powered - that seems absurdly high?

10% margin for error given current electricity prices (provided that they need to pay this off in 25 years. Under current prices, they cannot expect to pay it off in 20 years.)

milomilo · #5 Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 12:10 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xelebes

10% margin for error given current electricity prices (provided that they need to pay this off in 25 years. Under current prices, they cannot expect to pay it off in 20 years.)

Yeah, that timescale was what I figured it at too. I'm all for hydro power (and whatever, I'm not going to be paying for this anyway!), but when I saw that price tag I was expecting an incredible amount of power, not less than a gigawatt.

I guess if it's got a lifetime of 50+ years the economics would look a lot better.

Denscity · #6 Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 1:16 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by milomilo

Yeah, that timescale was what I figured it at too. I'm all for hydro power (and whatever, I'm not going to be paying for this anyway!), but when I saw that price tag I was expecting an incredible amount of power, not less than a gigawatt.

I guess if it's got a lifetime of 50+ years the economics would look a lot better.

I thought they mentioned a 100 year lifespan? It is possible as there's a few dams between here and Nelson that are around that old.

libtard · #7 Posted **Dec 18, 2014, 3:20 AM**

Earth fill dam

And for that price tag

SOSS · #8 Posted **Jan 24, 2015, 6:30 PM**

New $400 million wind farm to be built near Tumbler Ridge

New wind farm is going to cost less in capital costs per home powered. $400M to feed 54,000 homes is approximately $7,400 per powered house vs Site C costing $20,000. Yes, operating expenses are likely to be higher with wind versus hydro. I still stand by my opinion that Site-C is a waste of money and there are cheaper clean alternatives.

casper · #9 Posted **Jan 24, 2015, 7:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SOSS

New $400 million wind farm to be built near Tumbler Ridge

New wind farm is going to cost less in capital costs per home powered. $400M to feed 54,000 homes is approximately $7,400 per powered house vs Site C costing $20,000. Yes, operating expenses are likely to be higher with wind versus hydro. I still stand by my opinion that Site-C is a waste of money and there are cheaper clean alternatives.

I think we need both. Cite-C only address part of the incremental growth BC is projected to have. Wind is also needed but variable.

SOSS · #10 Posted **Jan 24, 2015, 9:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by casper

I think we need both. Cite-C only address part of the incremental growth BC is projected to have. Wind is also needed but variable.

Wind is variable, but if you have enough wind generators in enough different areas would that not resolve the variability issue?

Geothermal has yet to be tapped.

MalcolmTucker · #11 Posted **Feb 4, 2015, 6:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SOSS

Wind is variable, but if you have enough wind generators in enough different areas would that not resolve the variability issue?

Geothermal has yet to be tapped.

In theory, but you will end up producing way more electricity than you ever will need, and you will still need to build a backup plant (pumped storage or natural gas) unless you're willing to accept the 1% of time when your system produces nothing. Ends up being super expensive.

SOSS · #12 Posted **Apr 30, 2015, 4:22 PM**

Today it is expected that Elon Musk is going to announce that his new giga factory will also be producing lithium ion batteries for homes, offices, and industry drastically cutting the cost of having a personal home battery system. This coupled with evermore cheaper solar panels is democratizing the energy grid. SolarCity (Musk is Chairperson) will likely carry the products.

The near-future is not having large centralized power stations with expensive infrastructure to where it is needed. The near-future is to generate the power where you use it with a backup of centralized power.

I really do hope those lawsuits stop Site-C from being built. The dam is too expensive, to risky, and not the right solution for BC. Geothermal, Solar, Wind. All great options!

MalcolmTucker · #13 Posted **Apr 30, 2015, 4:32 PM**

Certainly for single family homes and less dense distributed generation is the future, at the very least 30 years out.

libtard · #14 Posted **Jun 6, 2015, 5:13 PM**

Site-C road contracts have started going out to tender

BC has embarrassed itself twice now by talking the talk but being unable to walk the walk. Northern Gateway and the LNG export facilities have fizzled. Let's stick to what we know. This is going to be a mega project that actually comes to fruition

Stingray2004 · #15 Posted **Sep 8, 2015, 12:56 AM**

A reporter from Dawson Creek today flew over the Site C dam site in a Cessna and took a bunch of pics. In his words... "Stunning what they've done in 42 days".

Here is a teaser pic with the rest to be released tomorrow apparently.

Source: Jonny Wakefield

SOSS · #16 Posted **Sep 21, 2015, 1:14 PM**

Bye-bye arable land.

Metro-One · #17 Posted **Sep 21, 2015, 2:37 PM**

Yeah, this is a shame. Luckily most of the arable land is higher up outside of the canyon area, but a lot of unique micro-climates exist along those canyon walls...

SpongeG · #18 Posted **Sep 21, 2015, 10:22 PM**

i grew up there, mixed feelings

but the city of ft st john is booming, they just built a new microtel hotel, and now a new hilton hotel brand is going up and a burger king and a lot more retail space. And they are looking to open a new elementary school. And lots of houses and apartments going up when i was there in the spring.

there are also a few camps going up in the area, i think one is 2500 man camp, one is either 800 or 1400 man camp

SpongeG · #19 Posted **May 4, 2019, 5:35 AM**

I will put this in here since its housing for BC Hydro.

Canada's Largest Affordable Passive Housing Project
Six storey wood construction

Completed in early 2019, this 6 storey and 50 unit building is slated to become one of Canada's largest certified Passive House Building located in Fort St. John, Canada. It is also a first worldwide, as it is slated to become he Northernmost multi-storey Multifamily Building achieving the stringent international Passive House Standard.

This collaboration project between BC Hydro and BC Housing is scheduled for occupancy in early 2019 and will be home to some BC Hydro workers and their families and provide affordable rental housing to the community.

More pics at the source: https://markendc.com/multifamily-pas...GSSkHAUYb3iZ9s

Doug · #20 Posted **May 5, 2019, 5:33 PM**

The amount of flooded land is insignificant. Environmental impacts are also overblown as Site C is basically a run of river facility that leverages existing storage of the Bennett Dam. The damage is already done. That being said, the cost is completely out of range. Even at half the cost, Site C makes no sense. In inflation adjusted terms, it will cost far more than the Bennett Dam, which was a far larger project (more than 2X the capacity, 19x flooded area, 3x height, 2X width).