Kimberly sun mine

[maryjane48]

http://www.sunmine.ca/news

[Jx3]

From June 2015 to June 2016 SunMine produced 1915 MWh, 98.6% of expected energy, and earned $195,700, which was 91.6% of expected revenue.

So it isn't even meeting expectations? Wonderful.

[The Green Barbarian]

Most recently we have been honored by:
•2016 Collaboration Award in this year’s Community Energy Association Climate & Energy Action Awards
•2017 Clean 50 award for outstanding contributions to clean capitalism

why is this "clean"? Because all of the emissions needed to build the panels were done in China?

[mikest2]

Go a little further down the page and you find this:


SunMine getting results
9/21/2016

From June 2015 to June 2016 SunMine produced 1915 MWh, 98.6% of expected energy, and earned $195,700, which was 91.6% of expected revenue. During the first year less than $30,000 was spent on operating and maintenance, less than 58% of what was expected. The most significant variances were avoiding having to clean the panels. Dust is being cleaned by precipitation, with the snow scouring affect taking care of bird poop.

The other major variance was a decision not to contract-out SunMine maintenance and operation at an annual cost of $30,000. Instead maintenance is being performed by City electricians with the expertise of the electrical engineer who acted as the Owner’s Engineer and Payment Certifier during construction, who advises on technical issues City electricians are not qualified to troubleshoot.

We expect operating costs to rise marginally in the future because the first year of operation was covered by a labour and materials warranty. During the first year warranty repair work was completed on 2 solar panels that were lost during a windstorm because they had not been installed correctly and one tracker motor. The 32 inverters, which have a 10 year warranty with ABB, were treated to a circuit board upgrade but not before 4 failed and are being replaced under warranty.

Recently the City spent $36,000 to create an inventory of spare parts that will be available to swap out with. Each component of the system is under warranty but the spare parts inventory will ensure minimal downtime while the warranty repair work is being completed.

​Awards, recognition, and publicity continue

One of the objectives of SunMine was to raise the community’s profile as a sunny, innovative community and this has proved to be a great success. Fall 2015 Mayor McCormick was a feature presenter on SunMine at the CivX Lower Mainland Local Government Conference.

In 2015 SunMine and its partners were honored with:

Community of the Year Award by Clean Energy BC, 2015
Union of BC Municipalities, 2015 Community Excellence Award for Leadership and Innovation in Green Initiatives

In 2016 SunMine received:
The Sustainability Award from the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC
The National Award for an Engineering Project or Achievement from Engineers Canada.

Most recently we have been honored by:
2016 Collaboration Award in this year’s Community Energy Association Climate & Energy Action Awards
2017 Clean 50 award for outstanding contributions to clean capitalism

1,096, people have toured the facility, including students from the local elementary, middle, and high school, as well as College of the Rockies and Selkirk College. 178 media articles have been published since construction was announced. The project video has received 4,111 unique views, and sunmine.ca has seen over 13,000 unique visitors.


SunMine wins another award
5/31/2016

SunMine has been presented with a prestigious award from the Engineers Canada: the National Award for an Engineering Project or Achievement. This is in addition to:
Clean Energy BC, 2015 Community of the Year Award
Union of BC Municipalities, 2015 Community Excellence Award for Leadership and Innovation in Green Initiatives
Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC, Sustainability Award


SunMine begins to yield results
11/24/2015


- Following the first 19 months of operation SunMine has begun to yield concrete results:

Construction
•Direct local construction labour:
–8,711 hours
–29 locals with 7.5 weeks of full-time employment
•5.1% or $271,000 over budget
•Completed 5 months behind schedule

Operation
•Over 19 weeks of commercial operation:
–752 MWh of electricity sold to BC Hydro
–$88,610 in revenue; estimated break even $216,000/year
–$12,940 in operational expenses; compared to $61,800/year estimated

Doesn't seem to add up............and if you do the numbers here, they are selling to BC Hydro at $0.1178 kWh, that's retail, how long can BC Hydro buy power at their sell price ? I guess that's the new "sustainability" !!

[maryjane48]

so in 19 weeks they made almost half what they need for a profit. seems pretty good to me . 5 percent over run is excellent. what you think the over run on site c going be? less than 5 percent? plus site c will be racking up 40 million a year in transport for fish lol is that the new sustainability?


the main take away should be yes they work in winter. yes they pay for themselves, yes they hire local , yes its good for all canadians

[erinmore3775]

From page 11 of the Sun Mine Business Plan (Google Search) Kimberly has concluded a 25 year purchase agreement with BC Hydro at $110.10 per kilo watt hour, with an annual escalation equal to the residential rate increase. The reason that they are able to make money at that rate is related to the original "cost" of the land and subsidies.

The budget indicates that they should make money after about 5 to 7 years depending on expenses. Is this a success story? The answer is yes. The reason for this is simple. Like the District of Lake Country water supply/hydro electric project, Kimberly took an unused asset (closed) mine and turned it into a photo electric production project with the assistance of the mining corporation. It became part of their reclamation project. DoLC needed a rebuild of their gravity fed water supply system. The turbine became their pressure reducer.

This is a win, win, win situation for Kimberly, BC Hydro, and the environment. Does this mean that ever community Photo Electric Generation project or hydro electric generation project is a 3 win situation. The answer is NO. All too often the price BC Hydro has to pay for the IPP's is significantly higer than the Kimberly or DoLC rates. Often too, there is no significant environmental gain. While I would hope that more mine reclamation sites can be turned in Photo Electric farms, that prospect does not seem to be on the immediate horrizon. Kimberly and DoLC are to be congratulated for their foresight.

[Smurf]

maryjane48 wrote:

so in 19 weeks they made almost half what they need for a profit. seems pretty good to me . 5 percent over run is excellent. what you think the over run on site c going be? less than 5 percent? plus site c will be racking up 40 million a year in transport for fish lol is that the new sustainability?


the main take away should be yes they work in winter. yes they pay for themselves, yes they hire local , yes its good for all canadians

Please explain how it is good for all Canadians.

Even explain how it is good for BC when BC Hydro has to pay retail price for the Hydro and then we the owners get absolutely no profit.

In fact it costs us money to distribute it. Doesn't sound good to me. I 100% agree with projects like this but only if they sell to us the owners at the going market rate. Nothing good about this at all. Here we are again subsidizing alternative energies and loosing money. Wonder why we have rate increases LOL.

[maryjane48]

its good for canadians because it shows they work in winter . dams are not a option going forward even if they allow site c. our energy needs are going to need 15 more site c in near future. that is never going happin. over the lobg term canada is going to need power from somewhere. im looking out for future canadians your looking out for yourself. visionary vs selfish

[hobbyguy]

It is a loser for BC Hydro and loser for BC Hydro ratepayers.

BC Hydro must collect, sell, distribute, invoice, account for, and then pay Sunmine. Not only that but BC Hydro is buying the power when it does NOT need it - off peak, and paying retail when wholesale rates are very low off peak.

BC Hydro, and its ratepayers are unjustly subsidizing this pie in the sky nonsense. It does not make money, it is made to look like it makes money at YOUR expense and at the expense of BC Hydro.

There is a huge controversy growing elsewhere about such subsidies. http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/302900-solar-energy-cant-survive-without-massive-subsidies and https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2017/05/30/why-do-federal-subsidies-make-renewable-energy-so-costly/#4451de89128c and http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/analysis/solar-powers-dependence-subsidies/

Many US states with more experience in the actual utility of solar pwer are chopping their net metering (which is essentially what Sunmine is operating under) by up to 75%. They realize that solar is costing too much for power when NOT needed and that is driving up costs for everyone.

Australia had a commission report on the skyrocketing costs and unreliability of their grid. It is called the Finkel Report.

"Critically, he recommended that new renewable energy projects must have an inbuilt back up system.

You might have heard about this big government report called the Finkel review — here's what it could mean for Australia's energy sector.

In addition to the solar or wind farm, new projects must include energy storage through either battery or hydro or some other means of back-up such as gas."

It is obvious to anyone with an RV solar system that it is virtually useless without batteries. The biggest ongoing cost of the RV solar system? Batteries that fail!

So this whole Sunmine project is an exercise in subsidies. They got free land. (Me too? I'd take that!) Free infrastructure (existing mine power lines etc.). Construction subsidies. Now they have huge operating subsidies from the City and from BC Hydro.

Then they claim to make money! Lol. The facility loses money for everybody else, including you if you are a BC Hydro ratepayer.

It is absolute folly.

[Smurf]

I hope the people that back these projects never complain about hydro rates when these subsidized projects are part of the cause.

[maryjane48]

I hope the people that back these projects never complain about hydro rates when these subsidized projects are part of the cause.

i hope the folks complaining about spending 40 million a year on being taxi service for fish dont complain about lack of money building up for important things.

[hobbyguy]

MJ- you can't deflect.

Sunmine is a boondoggle. It is an IPP, and just like almost all IPPs it is a boondoggle.

I guess that's why the IPP lobby funneled money to the NDP - they LOVE boondoggles.

[The Green Barbarian]

so in 19 weeks they made almost half what they need for a profit. seems pretty good to me .:

It's unsustainable and relies solely on a hugely inflated price for the power to survive. This is garbage. Giving these shysters a "sustainability award" is the height of comedy.

[The Green Barbarian]

This is a win, win, win situation for Kimberly, BC Hydro, and the environment. .

Where is the win for the environment exactly? This is awful for the environment.

[The Green Barbarian]

i hope the folks complaining about spending 40 million a year on being taxi service for fish dont complain about lack of money building up for important things.

This is not an important thing. It is a complete rip-off.