SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - With the help of an energy expert, the city looked into the future last week to determine whether the proposed Con Mine geothermal energy project is feasible over the long term.

Professor Richard Dixon, executive director of the Centre for Applied Business Research in Energy and the Environment at the Alberta School of Business, visited Yellowknife Wednesday to hold a workshop exploring governance issues and economic analysis tools related to the Con Mine community energy project.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said he didn't know how much the city paid to bring Dixon to Yellowknife, but said there were travel and accommodation fees, on top of a payment for the professor's services.

Dixon said for a project of this size, it's important for city council to consider, through scenario-based thinking, how the project will affect the community down the road.

"In other words, what's the impact of this project 30 years from now? You need to think about these things when you've got a project that will be around for 55 or 60 years and will have impacts on the city," he said.

The proposed $60.4 million project that hopes to heat 39 downtown buildings with warmth recovered from the now defunct Con Mine has a lot of potential, but the city needs to ensure it is adaptable and reliable, said Dixon.

"You don't want to build this and then discover you have another cheaper energy source five years from now that you can't adapt to," he said.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said Dixon and his team at the University of Alberta will act as a neutral "financial conscience" for the city, so it doesn't get caught up in the benefits of the project without considering all of the ins and outs.

"What these guys do is they keep an eye on us from the side," Van Tighem said. "They're working as advisers to council to ensure that we're weighing every side of every decision and looking at the what ifs and what the assumptions are."

One of the assumptions discussed during the workshop was the amount of geothermal energy being produced and the sustainability of it.

Van Tighem said it's important for the city to find out at what point energy can't be generated quickly enough.

Although there are many assumptions and scenarios to consider, Dixon said the project could present economic and academic benefits.

"The city is gaining a lot of intellectual property and that's valuable," he said. "Sustainable cities are a critical way of the future."

Now it's a matter of determining how to leverage the project, said Dixon.

"Long term you're looking at industrial opportunity, commercial, you're looking at the development of a new energy industry source, you're looking at academics, and that's part of the role of city council."

The city is currently looking for private sector investors to take part in the project.

City councillor David Wind spoke out last month saying he won't support the project until a private sector investor signs on, and showing the project is viable.

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