The language and culture of the Upper Nicola Band honour the natural laws of the tmixw — “that which gives us life.” One tmixw is the sun, which shines for more than 2,000 hours annually in much of the band’s traditional territory in B.C.’s arid Okanagan region.
Plans are afoot to harness the sun’s power to build B.C.’s largest solar farm on the band’s Quilchena reserve, a project that would create enough energy for 5,000 homes and deliver up to $4 million in annual revenues to the First Nation community.
The farm would be 15 times the (Read more…) of Kimberly’s SunMine solar installation on the site of a former hard-rock mine, currently the largest solar project in the province.
“We wanted to showcase something positive for the environment,” Chief Harvey McLeod told DeSmog Canada.