While the Peace region faces worker shortages in the natural resource industry now, the government is hoping that preparation for growth in the emerging clean energy sector may prevent future shortages and challenges.

It was announced on Jan. 31 that the provincial government is providing the GLOBE Foundation with $216,720 for a research project that will examine the labour market needs and job potential of the growing clean energy sector.

The study is a welcome one in the Peace region where clean energy projects including wind, hydro, liquid gas, forestry and more are underway and set to continue expanding.

“The Peace has it all,” said Juergen Puetter, President of Aeolis Wind and Blue Fuel Energy and Chair of Sustainable Development Technology Canada.

“You’ve got the hydro, the wind, the gas, the lumber; you’ve got everything. And we’re convinced that the Peace is going to be powerhouse driving development within Canada.”

Many renewable energy projects are already running in the Peace, demonstrating the strong energy possibilities for the future of the area.

The BC Hydro Site C Clean Energy Project is one of those projects and is currently in an environmental assessment, which will determine its future.

“The hydro power is largely clean, and people might argue about how clean it is but it is still much cleaner than fossil fuels,” said Puetter.

The Site C project is a controversial one that many environmental organizations oppose, but BC Hydro and local politicians say that the dam is necessary to support B.C.’s future power needs.

“One of these key issues is that this project is not being built for export power. There are people out there who have tried to mislead the public and say that it is, and that’s unfortunate. We see our demand for electricity in BC over the next 20 years growing by 40 per cent,” said Blair Lekstrom, MLA for Peace River South.

With the growing power needs for natural resource projects in the province, B.C. Hydro has recently even suggested that Site C won’t be enough and five similar dams would be needed to meet demand, according to Puetter.

However, other emerging technologies such as wind energy and liquid fuels may offer the alternatives that are needed.

Wind power is one emerging technology in the Peace that has the capacity to generate a huge amount of power as it becomes further developed.

“The wonderful wind, the best wind resources, are on the ridges going north from Hudson’s Hope all the way up to the Yukon,” said Puetter.

“What happens there is you get some really unique wind that basically gathers from the Pacific and falls over the Rockies, and the last foothills is where the wind accelerates as it comes up and over them and then falls down in the prairies. That acceleration makes for an extraordinary wind resource, and it perhaps unequal anywhere else in North America.”

Currently, there are no sites on these ridges but many are slated for development in the near future.

Other green technologies that are emerging and viable for the Peace region include liquid fuel technologies, geothermal and solar.

Puetter said that these technologies are less than a decade away from leading and it’s imperative that the government and the region begin preparing now.

“For the short term, fossil is going to be the King. No doubt about it. But we all know it’s a finite resource and one day, it’s going to be gone,” said Puetter. “The sustainable, clean technology sector will continue to exist [when fossil fuels do not], so I believe we need to use this opportunity now while the fossil fuel sector is growing so rapidly to take some of the resources from that and apply them to the renewable sector so we have something that will still be there when the fossil fuel boom is over.”

Puetter hopes that the study will show a demand for the energy sources and the fact that now is the time to prepare for it by training skilled workers in the new technologies and preparing infrastructure to handle the influx of workers.

“Getting skilled people is an issue, and no matter what activity, it’s and issue for all of us,” said Puetter.

Emerging clean energy sectors have been working closely with Northern Lights College to begin training workers for the new industries. For example, the college now offers the only Wind Turbine Technician program in Western Canada to ensure that the skills are available when they’re being sought in increasing numbers.

However, many of these industries will be requiring new training facilities and infrastructure to keep up with demand.

“The good news, however, is when you look at other areas where this happened in the past,” said Puetter. “Fort McMurray, for example, when they were faced with the growth, they didn’t have the infrastructure and the planning. And [the Peace] does, so they are much better suited to grow in the requirement that is going to be coming at them.”

The development of the clean energy sector also has the ability to address the challenge that the Peace region has experienced in attracting permanent residents and families, according to Puetter, because is gets the local municipalities out of the boom and bust cycles and in to a sustainable, steady path.

“Workers have to think about whether this is a boom and when that boom will be over because, then what? Having something that gives a counter balance to the boom-bust mentality will be a very important component to attracting long-term people to live there.”

The GLOBE Foundation will be getting underway with the study immediately, and the study is set to take six months.

It will identify and define key strategic sectors of the ‘clean’ economy with the highest potential for job creation. This research will be used to work towards ensuring there is a sufficient number of skilled workers to meet the anticipated demand.

In addition to the GLOBE Foundation, the main B.C. project partners include the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions.