Geothermal power project stalls for Fort Liard, N.W.T.

The Northwest Territories Power Corporation and Borealis Geopower have failed to reach an agreement about a proposal to build a geothermal power plant in Fort Liard. Now Borealis says its federal grant has lapsed and the project is stalled.

Borealis GeoPower had three years to complete a power purchase agreement with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation before losing federal funding.

The company says a binding agreement was necessary to secure the remaining funding needed to construct the power plant.

The power corporation says they were not against the geothermal project, but they needed to know more about the project before signing a binding agreement.

"We needed more detailed information,” says NTPC spokesperson Pam Coulter. “Operations, responsibility for outages and things like that."

Coulter says Borealis didn't respond to their request on these matters.

Tim Thompson, co-founder and CEO of Borealis GeoPower, says his company provided the information.

"The process should only take three months if the both parties are willing. We couldn't do that in three years."

‘Missed opportunity:’ Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley, the MLA for Weledeh, says the situation is a missed opportunity.

“We need to really get with the program here and get in clean reliable power that serves our communities and our social needs as well.”

Bromley is also concerned with the territory's plan to replace diesel power with liquid natural gas.

He says natural gas is more harmful to the environment than diesel or even coal.

Bromley says he will lobby cabinet to have the power corporation take another look at the geothermal project in Fort Liard.

The power corporation says it's still willing to work with Borealis to reach an agreement.