Four wind projects have been selected from BC Hydro’s second call for power.
Three of projects are in the Peace region, while the fourth is in the Southern Interior, Energy and Climate Solutions Minister Adrian Dix announced in Vancouver Wednesday (May 13).
The four projects are: Bessie Wind Project in Dawson Creek, which will be 251 megawatts; Nicola Wind Project in West Kelowna, which is 496 megawatts; Sweetwater Wind Project in Dawson Creek, which is 210 megawatts; and Taylor South Wind Project in Taylor, which is 201 megawatts.
BC Hydro is awarding a 30-year electricity purchase agreements to the four projects, which will provide 3,500 gigawatt hours per year of electricity. It’s enough to power 350,000 more homes and boosting BC Hydro’s current supply by five per cent.
The projects are expected to come online as early at 2032, with all projects in service by October 2033.
The provincial government says the development and construction of the four projects are expected to generate as much as $4.3 billion in private capital spending and will created 1,500 jobs throughout the province.
BC Hydro president Charlotte Mitha said the projects reflect BC Hydro’s approach to using regular competitive calls for power to grow the system “at the pace needed and align the supply with the demand of the customer load while keeping affordability front and centre.”
The announcement comes more than 10 months after BC Hydro began taking proposals for new energy projects to meet the latest call for power. BC Hydro received 14 proposals totalling more than 9,100 gigawatt hours per year, which was nearly double the targeted amount.
The proposals had to include a minimum 25 per cent equity ownership held by First Nations. The four selected have 51 per cent equity ownership and represents more than $2 billion of ownership by First Nations in the new renewable energy projects in the province.
The 2025 call for power built on a 2024 call for power, which led to 10 wind and solar projects being selected.
Dix said that through working together with the renewable power industry and First Nations, there has been “incredible progress” in just a couple of years to dramatically increase B.C.’s power supply.
“Let’s consider this. Combined with the 2024 call for power, BC Hydro will be adding 8,500 gigawatt hours of clean electricity annually by 2033. That’s enough to power 850,000 homes, an increase of 13% and it could not come.”