THE EDGE IS HERE
Driving change in Canada and around the world. UVic-led research is bridging the knowledge gap for energy-challenged coastal communities
Even though BC’s remote, off-the-grid coastal communities sit next to an enormous untapped source of renewable energy—the Pacific Ocean—they continue to rely on dirty and expensive diesel fuel to generate their electricity.
There’s a strong appetite in these communities—many of which are Indigenous—for renewable technologies such as wind, wave and tidal. So what’s holding them back?
“There’s a knowledge gap that still has to be bridged,” says Brad Buckham, a mechanical engineer at UVic’s Institute for Integrated Energy Systems who specializes in marine energy technologies. “The communities need real data to assess how the resource will be harnessed, how the technology will produce power over decades of operation, and how it will offset diesel use over that same period.”
Without that long-term assessment, he says, uncertainty dominates discussion and first-of-a-kind community-based marine energy projects fail to materialize.
Buckham is co-leading the Pacific Regional Institute for Marine Energy Discovery (PRIMED), a new project that will eliminate this uncertainty. “PRIMED is all about using data gathered in the field and advanced computer simulations to do long-term assessments and determine the full costs to the communities,” he says.
At present, communities have to accept a technology developer’s estimate of the benefits and costs of a project, without an arm’s length third party to turn to. PRIMED is that third party, says Buckham. “Trust has to be proportional to the economic commitment made by the community and the commitment made by the technology developer. PRIMED will help build that trust.”
PRIMED involves a range of academic and marine energy technology partners, notably Barkley Project Group in Nanaimo, a renewable energy developer that already works with remote communities along the coast.
“They’re our community representatives,” says Buckham. “Renewable energy integration is all about a synergy between supply and demand. Barkley is covering the demand side, PRIMED will provide the supply side and find the synergies, if they’re there. Through Barkley, we’ll communicate possibilities and results to community leadership.”
PRIMED will gather extensive wind, wave and tide data from a number of existing sources, including the multi-partner West Coast Wave Initiative which Buckham also leads, and the new Canadian Pacific Robotic Ocean Observing Facility (C-PROOF), led by UVic oceanographer Jody Klymak. The C-PROOF project involves sensors mounted on autonomous underwater gliders and floats.
As the first project of its kind in Canada and the world, PRIMED will be a model for other jurisdictions, says Buckham.
“Worldwide, remote coastal communities are the break-in market for marine renewables. Our goal is to demonstrate how this ‘third party’ approach to risk mitigation should be a best practice in BC and elsewhere.”
UVic is a national leader in sustainable energy research, working closely with governments, industry and community groups to promote clean growth and lowcarbon economic development.
The PRIMED project is funded by Western Economic Diversification Canada.