On Tuesday, March 10, Guy Heywood of Renaissance Power approached the District of Squamish about building a Community Power Project (CPP). Renaissance Power consists of engineers, financier and businessmen who are very experienced in their fields. A "run of the river" project would be the likely possibility, with the Mashiter Creek or the Squamish River as likely spots. "Run of the river" uses the natural flow and elevation drop of a river to generate electricity without the need for dams. A portion of the water from the fast-moving river is diverted into a pipe that channels it to a turbine, then back to the river, leaving enough of the waterway's existing flow in order to protect environmental values.
Our Mayor, Greg Gardner, wouldn't commit to a Letter of Intent with Renaissance Power until he and the council got feedback from the community. We as a community should definitely take a good hard look at this project; it would bring work to Squamish and use many of our businesses to build the project. My husband is presently employed with such a project as a driver for Ken Harris & Sons of Squamish on the Peter Kiewit built cloudworks Energy Inc, Harrison Hydro LP - "run-of-river" project.
Once the project is complete we would have our own power source and power to sell. When a town hall meeting is held, please come out to listen to details about the proposed, potential money-generating project.
Suzanne Deminger Kirkman
Squamish
