WTA members leading the way to carbon free energy

Members of the BC Wilderness Tourism Association are working towards a day when they will be carbon neutral with funding from the government.

The Innovative Clean Energy (ICE) Fund, announced by Premier Gordon Campbell, provides $25-million to off-the-grid businesses and communities to develop innovative, clean energy projects.

“Developing renewable energy projects is not cheap or easy,” says Evan Loveless, WTA executive director. “Funding like this is exactly what our members need to find solutions to their energy needs and achieve their clean, renewable energy goals.”

The money supports the BC Energy Plan and the government's goal of electricity self-sufficiency by 2016 and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent by 2020. The B.C.'s premier says the ICE Fund will showcase B.C. technologies to the world and drive solutions to climate change.

Already many WTA members are leaders in the use of renewable energy projects, their remote locations forcing them to look for solutions to wean themselves off expensive and carbon emitting generators in exchange for harnessing the wind, sun and water before it became trendy. Strathcona Park Lodge runs almost entirely off a small hydro system with a back up generator only kicking in when a series of small dams run low. Near Golden Hydra River Guides uses solar panels to power their office on the banks of the Kicking Horse River.