The options for the next major hydro dam in the Yukon have been reduced to six sites by the Next Generation Hydro team.

The team is conducting a two-day workshop in Whitehorse that began this morning to present the six options.

It will also be presenting a paper discussing how a major hydro dam stacks up against other renewable energy options such as smaller scale hydro projects, wind and solar.

A paper is also being released that shows building a transmission line to connect the Yukon with the B.C. grid or to Fairbanks, Alaska makes no financial sense.

Two of the options are on the Upper Stewart River above Mayo, three are at various sites on the Pelly River and one is on the Frances River.

The original schedule released last November called for the Yukon Development Corporation to have its final business case for one or more sites in the hands of the territorial cabinet before then of the year

The project team explained in a briefing Wednesday the business case won’t go forward until early next years, but they did not define early.

Brad Cathers, minister responsible for the development corporation, said the work has taken longer than expected because its a mammoth undertaking with much to consider.

In an interview following his opening remarks at the workshop this morning, Cathers said he does not expect cabinet will select a site or sites to pursue before the end of the Yukon Party’s mandate next October.

“This planning initiative is all about giving the Yukon government, First Nations, Yukon Development Corporation and Yukon citizens with the information we need to make informed decisions together,” Cathers told this morning’s audience. “It is my hope that together, we will be able to find a path that benefits future generations of Yukoners.”

Cathers said as the Next Generation Hydro project is focused on the next large hydro project, Yukon Energy continues its work examining smaller additions to the grid that will provide for growth in demand over the shorter term.

The stated intent of the Next Generation Hydro project is to select one or more sites for a major dam development that will provide renewable energy for the Yukon over the next 50 years. Under the direction the territorial cabinet gave the development corporation – along with the $2 million to conduct the exercise – was a directive that the Yukon River was not to be considered for any projects.

The project team has whittled down the options to six using available technical information and the archive of previous studies amassed over the past years and decades. A dam across the Teslin River was among the 16 options left at the last cut early this year, but has since been eliminated, for instance.

There has already been concerns raised by First Nations about damming another Yukon River and flooding vast tracts of land to create the required storage, in the same way Schwatka Lake was created to provide storage for the Whitehorse Rapids Dam.

The Yukon Conservation Society sponsored its own workshop last month to look at renewable energy alternatives to “big hydro.” Big hydro is renewable but it’s not green energy because of the major impacts it has on rivers and entire ecosystems, the conservation society maintains.

In a briefing yesterday, Next Generation team leader Lisa Badenhorst said they have been meeting with First Nations and will continue to have discussions with them.

Darielle Talarico, the team communication’s manager, said they are making best efforts to spread the information they are compiling.

“There are a lot of people with lots of concerns so what we are doing is generating information so we can inform the conversation,” she said. “And the board is aware of those concerns.”

Peter Helland of Vancouver’s Midgard Consulting, the firm hired to pull together the technical analysis, said yesterday the description of the six options, including the estimated cost for each, is general in nature. All six options propose an operational hydro facility by 2035.

Using a growth analysis, Helland and his crew have estimated the Yukon will need an additional 57 megawatts of generating capacity by 2065.

For the sake of comparing the scale of the six options, the Whitehorse dam is 18 metres high and the Schwatka Lake storage reservoir is 1.6 square kilometres in size. The dam has 40 megawatts of hydro generating capacity, plus backup diesel and LNG generating capacity.

The six sites identified are:

• DETOUR CANYON – Located on the Pelly River upriver from Pelly Crossing, the Detour Canyon option includes a dam measuring 72 metres high. It would involve flooding 130 square kilometres.

It would require a 83-kilometre transmission line to tie into the grid at Faro, along with a new 90-kilometre road to the site. It’s expected the facility would have a total generating capacity of 60 megawatts by 2065. The total project cost in 2015 dollars is estimated at $1.4 billion, with an annual operating and maintenance cost of $9.5 million.

• GRANITE CANYON – Located on the Pelly River upriver from Pelly Crossing, the Granite Canyon option includes a dam measuring 60 metres high. It would involve flooding 173 square kilometres.

It would require a 15-kilometre transmission line to tie into the grid, along with a new 15-kilometre road to the site. It’s expected the facility would have a total generating capacity of 57 megawatts by 2065. The total project cost in 2015 dollars is estimated at $847 million, with an annual operating and maintenance cost of $7.2 million.

• FRASER FALLS – Located on the Upper Steward River upriver from Mayo, the Fraser Falls option includes a dam measuring 56 metres high. It would involve flooding 311 square kilometres.

It would require an 80-kilometre transmission line to tie into the grid , along with a new 40-kilometre road to the site. It’s expected the facility would have a total generating capacity of 57 megawatts by 2065. The total project cost in 2015 dollars is estimated at $1.2 billion, with an annual operating and maintenance cost of $8.7 million.

• TWO MILE CANYON – Located near the confluence of the Stewart and Hess rivers upriver from Fraser Falls, the Two Mile Canyon option includes a dam measuring 68 metres high. It would involve flooding 101 square kilometres.

It would require a 113-kilometre transmission line to tie into the grid, along with a new 110-kilometre road to the site. It’s expected the facility would have a total generating capacity of 54 megawatts by 2065. The total project cost in 2015 dollars is estimated at $919 million, with an annual operating and maintenance cost of $8.5 million.

• FALSE CANYON AND MIDDLE CANYON – Located on the Francis River north of Watson Lake, the option involves a dam measuring 65 metres high, and a second run-of-the-river generating facility downriver at Middle Canyon. It would require flooding 154 square kilometres, in addition to using Francis Lake for storage.

It would require a 310-kilometre transmission line to tie into the grid, along with a new 10-kilometre road to the site. It’s expected the facility would have a total generating capacity of 78 megawatts by 2065. The total project cost in 2015 dollars is estimated at $2 billion, with an annual operating and maintenance cost of $12.5 million.

• SLATE RAPIDS AND HOOLE CANYON – Located on the Pelly River upriver from Ross River, the Slate Canyon and Hoole River option includes a dam at Slate Rapids measuring 57 metres high, and second run-of-three river generating facility at Hoole Canyon. It would involve flooding 154 square kilometres.

It would require a 145-kilometre transmission line to tie into the grid, along with a new 10-kilometre road to the site. It’s expected the facility would have a total generating capacity of 107 megawatts by 2065. The total project cost in 2015 dollars is estimated at $3 billion, with an annual operating and maintenance cost of $15.9 million.

The project team has produced a 117-page report detailing the general design and associated costs.