The goal is to harness clean energy, and with the province’s electric utility willing to sign agreements to buy private power for up to 40 years, entrepreneurs see big potential to cash. B.C.’s aim is to achieve energy self-sufficiency by 2016.

Other provinces, notably Ontario, have also been turning to private companies to fill the alternative-energy void in recent years. In B.C., the government’s energy plan proposes to meet the 2016 target without nuclear generation. At the same time, all new electricity sources must have zero net greenhouse gas emissions, according to the plan.

A recent call by BC Hydro for clean-power proposals in November attracted 68 bids to produce electricity from sources including so-called run-of-the-river hydro generation, wind turbines, and biomass. Companies were so eager that proposals more than tripled the amount of power the utility is asking for BC Hydro called for 5,000-gigawatt hours of power, proposals came in for 17,000-gigawatt hours. “There’s no place in Canada that has the green power opportunities like British Columbia,” says Gene Vickers of the group B.C. Citizens for Green Energy, which has been pushing the government to tap the province’s vast potential for tidal, geothermal, wind, and small-scale hydro power.

One company jumping on the green-power bandwagon is a former casino operation based in Lithuania. After leaving the gaming industry following a dispute with a business partner, Creation Casinos Inc. was looking for new investments. The search took it to British Columbia, where it has since purchased and morphed into Orca Power Corp. As a result, it’s doing preliminary work to develop tidal power resources in the province. It had planned to submit a 15-megawatt bid to the BC Hydro clean-power call, a project the company has since put on hold due to the death of its chief operating officer, Anthony Duggleby, in October.

“I think many people see a potential here that there is a resource, and they’re trying to capitalize on it,” says Linas Antanavicius, Orca Power’s corporate counsel. “Another thing is that in British Columbia, so far, there’s not much electricity that’s produced by independents.”

Since taking over Orca Power, the company has expanded its portfolio to include Katabatic Power Corp., which has two fairly advanced wind projects in development near Prince Rupert. In the recent clean-energy call, it submitted a proposal for a 700-megawatt wind farm on nearby Banks Island under the guise of North Coast Wind Energy Corp., a joint venture with Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG.

So far, the company has made progress on the engineering and environmental assessment work needed to get the project off the ground. But Katabatic has run into roadblocks with its nearby Mount Hays wind farm, which was supposed to be built and generating power by the fall. “One of the issues, I think, was turbine supplies,” says Antanavicius, explaining the delay. The goal now is to finish Mount Hays by the end of 2009, he notes.

Katabatic’s challenges, however, look favourable compared to those of one of its competitors, EarthFirst Canada Inc. It is already building a 144-megawatt wind farm called Dokie 1 in northeastern British Columbia’s Peace River area, but a shortage of financing blamed on tight credit markets led it to file for creditor protection in November. According to the company, it doesn’t have enough cash to meet its obligations as well as its commitments to the Dokie project, and as a result it’s seeking a sale.

Antanavicius, though, says despite the financial crunch, he believes the industry and his own company’s projects are viable. “North Coast Wind Energy Corporation is kind of lucky at this point in time because the partner in the project is Deutsche Bank, so the project is financed. Until now, I’d say there’s no problem with financing. It’s a reliable bank, and they’re willing to proceed.”