By Curtis Galbraith

City Hall

Hughes Lake area power generation project part of City Halls’ newly-approved Energy Strategy

May 10, 2021 | 5:30 AM

Grande Prairie’s Mayor says the city’s newly approved energy strategy creates a foundation for efficient energy generation and consumption while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Jackie Clayton says it includes several ideas.

“Including an energy project. The Hughes Lake area has been identified for a potential location for a major project located in the northwest section of the city.”

Clayton says its location near road, rail and air transportation makes Hughes Lake an attractive location for such a facility.

“It makes it a prime candidate for a stand-alone on or off-the-grid generation project. The area is conveniently located, and it looks like a great opportunity for the city in the future. It could be the catalyst for structural change within the tax base within the City of Grande Prairie due to the substantial increase in the industrial base’s subsequent growth.”

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Energy generation is one of the three main pillars in the document, along with a carbon neutral operation plan and community energy, both of which contain various ideas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Mayor Jackie Clayton says the first step in the community energy area was doing an inventory of community emissions in 2017.

“That study identifies the impact that emissions have within our air quality. The strategy also consisted of input from the public and results from community consultation. it included energy improvement actions.”

Those potential actions include public charging stations for battery vehicles, a district energy system, small demonstration projects for geothermal and solar power, and a partnership with Aquatera at the landfill on renewable natural gas. The city already approved a goal of a six per cent reduction in community-generated greenhouse gas emissions below 2015 levels by 2035.

Ideas to reduce emissions in the carbon-neutral area include assessing buildings and infrastructure to see where less energy could be used and fewer emissions created, converting 8000 streetlights to LED, and combined heat and power ideas on a small scale at the Dave Barr, and solar power options for the Coca-Cola and Eastlink Centres. The city says this strategy commits it o being carbon neutral by 2025.

Council approved the Energy Strategy at its meeting last Monday.