An energy company has filed for a five-year investigative licence for tidal turbines near Kitkatla.
Weyl Power Ltd. filed the application on June 12 to investigate and monitor a 340-hectare area to potentially replace Kitkatla’s diesel electrical generators with renewable energy tidal turbines.
The company, if its licence is approved, will measure the strength and duration of the currents. Acoustic Doppler Current Profiling with sound frequencies will be towed by a small boat through the area. The frequencies, the application said, cannot be heard by humans or wildlife.
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Once tidal data is gathered, the assessment may go on to a second stage, requiring more fieldwork. The application says “This may include the installation (temporary anchoring) of bottom-mounted ADCP units at likely deployment sites…” At the same time, potential electrical transmission cable pathways would be determined.
Weyl Power has been in contact with the Gitxaala Nation.
In the investigative phase, there wouldn’t be any construction. If a project is built afterwards, the plan said: “The turbine arrays themselves will be fully removable for purposes of maintenance and end-of-life decommissioning.”
Comments on the application are open until July 29.
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