SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - City council showed unanimous support for the proposed transformation of Con Mine into a geothermal energy source for Yellowknife's downtown Monday.

Implementation Schedule November 2010: Council's decision to proceed November 2010 to March 2011: Request for expression of interest in the process November 2010 to March 2011: Establish a city subsidiary November 2010 to November 2011: Negotiate and sign memorandum of understandings with potential customers November 2010 to November 2011: Negotiate special commercial electricity rate November 2010 to November 2011: Mine water temperature monitoring March 2011: Establish borrowing authority to finance project March 2011 to June 2011: Issue a finance agreement to city subsidiary April 2011: Enter into memorandum of understanding with partner to jointly implement community energy system April 2011 to October 2011: Finalize detailed concept and negotiations with partner November 2011: Begin design and construction

"This is where the rubber meets the road," said Mayor Gord Van Tighem after hearing a presentation about the community energy system by Compass Resource Management, a consulting firm from Vancouver.

"We're now moving toward the decision stage. We've proved that technically it can be done; our business plan shows that financially it's a good idea, so now we're at the next stage where we will go out and find out what the real prices are ... and that will either prove or disprove the business case."

After the project is approved by city council, ownership and operations of the community energy system will commence with the request of interest from companies that want to partner in the project.

From there, the city will determine the ownership structure, which could be wholly owned by the city or split so the municipality owns the distribution system and a private company owns the energy generation.

Van Tighem said there is no doubt the energy system, which will heat 39 buildings in the downtown core with heat recovered from the now defunct Con Mine, will make it through to the next stage.

The overall energy demand from the buildings, which include the Explorer Hotel, Sir John Franklin School, Northern United Place, city hall and the RCMP headquarters building, is about 52,000 megawatt hours a year, which is equivalent to 7.5 million litres of heating oil per year, said Taylor Zeeg, an associate for the consulting firm. For comparison, the Explorer Hotel uses 3,400 megawatt hours a year.

The estimated capital cost for the project is $60.4 million. In January, the federal government pledged between $10 million and $20 million to the community energy system, which will begin servicing the downtown core in 2013.

The temperature of the mine still needs to be confirmed to determine whether the project can continue as planned. The mine's temperature is estimated at between 33 C and 71 C - at the mine's deepest point - based on extensive modelling work that was done by geological engineers at the University of British Columbia, said Zeeg.

"The project looks good at that expected temperature," he said, adding the system would still "look good" if the temperature was lower than what was estimated.

Bob Long, administrator for the city, said there will be test drilling to determine the exact temperature before the city fully commits to the project.

City councillor Cory Vanthuyne was excited about the project, pointing out it will benefit the city, the territory and Canada.

"I think that as a city when we can reduce fuel consumption by seven million litres annually and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 20,000 tonnes annually, that's a benefit to quite frankly the Northwest Territories and Canada as well," he said.

Zeeg said the project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 to 95 per cent for the buildings connected to the system. "That's equivalent to removing over half of the gasoline automobiles in Yellowknife every year."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.