Rather than building new facilities to meet B.C.'s future energy demands, Hydro's Power Smart section is looking for projects that would harvest energy that in many cases is literally going up in smoke.

The GVRD's Burnaby incinerator is a clean-burning facility that annually converts 250,000 tonnes of GVRD garbage into 800,000 tonnes of steam -- and the regional district proposes to use that steam to annually generate 118 gigawatts a year for Hydro.

The GVRD currently sells about 40 per cent of the incinerator's steam it to a nearby paper mill -- but at present the remainder simply puffs out of the Big Bend facility's landmark red and white smokestack.

"It's an incinerator. There's a perfect example of harnessing something to generate electricity and having a positive net impact on the environment," Power Smart vice-president Bev Van Ruyven said.

GVRD engineering and construction manager Tim Jervis added that a deal with Hydro would dovetail with the GVRD's sustainable region initiative, a wide-ranging new policy that makes energy conservation a priority.

The Hydro shortlist also includes proposals by several forest industry companies currently burning wood waste simply as a means of disposal.

Some pulp mills are proposing to retool their operations and create low pollution generators using the wood as fuel to generate electricity for the provincial grid.

Hydro projects B.C. energy demands to grow by an average 800 gigawatt hours a year over the next decade.

That's enough electricity to annually supply 80,000 homes, and the corporation's 10-year plan envisions a mix of strategies including customer generation, so-called green energy and private generation to meet that growth.

It's offering to buy customer-generated electricity for as much as 40 per cent above the rates it charges industrial customers.

Van Ruyven noted that when Hydro made its call for customer generation proposals last May, it was hopeful of attracting bids that would provide about 600 to 800 gigawatts by 2005.

She said she was pleasantly surprised by the volume of responses -- noting that bids on the shortlist promise to deliver 3,100 gigawatts by 2005.

"It's a great situation to be in, to be able to procure more if we want as opposed to making this call and not getting anywhere close to 800 gigawatt hours," Van Ruyven said.

Hydro will stick to the annual 800 gigawatt target, with successful proposals to be announced next January, but Van Ruyven said the volume of responses bodes well for the 10-year plan.

"This is part of our resource acquisition strategy for the long term. To know that there's lots more potential out there is really encouraging."

Other projects on the shortlist include Norske Canada pulp mills at Crofton and Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, each promising to deliver 348.5 gigawatts -- without consuming any additional energy.

The situation on Vancouver Island is more acute than in many parts of B.C. because of limited access to both natural gas and electricity.

Norske Canada energy director Dennis Fitzgerald said the company has not done final costing on its proposals.

"We have a fairly good sense of what it takes to build the equipment but there are still a number of questions that need to be answered before we can say with any degree of surety what it will cost, or how long it will take to recover our investment."

"A lot of it will depend on what will be the purchase price of the electricity that's produced by these projects."