B.C. city taps into renewable solar power

VANCOUVER— The City of Kimberley and its partners broke ground this week on a $5.3-million, 1.05-megawatt solar power plant on the old Sullivan Mine site designed to produce enough electricity to run about 185 homes.

Though still small by utility standards, its size makes it the biggest solar plant west of Ontario and the first grid-sized operation to be tied into BC Hydro’s system, which should happen sometime around November, according to Kimberley chief administrative officer Scott Sommerville. It will operate under the name SunMine.

Sommerville said it was the Vancouver-based non-profit foundation EcoSmart, a heavy promoter of solar power, that first approached Kimberley in 2008 and sold the sun-blessed community on its potential to support at least a pilot project to prove it out.

They are looking to earn a return from the project for the investment they’re putting in (the city borrowed $2 million for its share), but Sommerville said the community hopes it also sends a message about Kimberley that is equally important.

“It (speaks to) the kind of people we want to attract here,” Sommerville said. “We want innovators, we want people who are looking for a new type of lifestyle.”

He added that Kimberley overcame the Sullivan Mine’s closure in 2001 by adopting an entrepreneurial spirit and reinventing itself as a tourism destination.

The pilot project is now part of the city’s strategic initiative to get into clean energy.

EcoSmart CEO Michel de Spot, in a news release, said experience gained from SunMine will help prove solar as “a viable option for B.C.’s generating portfolio,” particularly in the east Kootenays.

Sommerville said the Sullivan site could support another seven megawatts of solar generation with BC Hydro’s existing infrastructure nearby and up to 200 megawatts in total if it were beefed up.

Besides Kimberley’s $2 million, Teck Resources Ltd. — owner of the Sullivan Mine site — is contributing $2 million, the province’s innovative clean energy fund is putting in $1 million in government support, the Columbia Basin Trust is contributing $300,000 and the local diversification-oriented Southern Interior Development Initiative Trust contributed $50,000.