Alberta’s largest wind farm opens
by Jan Triska, Greenerpolitics correspondent
I remember the pioneering days of the mid 1990s when the wind turbines at Pincher Creek were no more than a dozen or so, all arranged in a row on the spine of a long ridge…a great photo-op and a glimpse into a futuristic landscape where, one day, electricity would be made from wind. But there were only a few and it seemed an experimental exercise.
Fast forward a dozen years and Alberta is now home to the second (or third, depending on the sources) largest supplier of wind-generated power to the grid in this country. Only Ontario has currently more installed generating capacity. One could even say that Alberta has lead the way; it certainly is known to have significant wind power construction expertise, wind mapping expertise and notable entrepreneurs in the field like Jason Edworthy of VisionQuest.
The latest chapter in wind power development comes from Enmax. Their newest - and to-date largest wind farm has been unveiled near the town of Taber. Utilizing the latest German-made technology, the Enercon turbines in this farm are pretty much the state-of the art models. With only 37 wind turbines, the project has a maximum generating capacity of 80 MW - the highest capacity among the Alberta-based wind farms. It is enough to apparently power a town of 32,000 inhabitants. It is also a testimony to how quickly the efficiency and the relative output of wind turbines have grown. I personally recall an interview with Robert Hornung, the Canwea president, a few years ago when he’d said ” the wind power industry worldwide is developing along a technological curve that’s comparable to what happened in the computer industry in the 80s“. In other words, a qualitative and quantitative revolution, with a new leap occurring every three or four years. Promising news indeed to those who want cleaner electricity sources. The only thing I have to add, as a writer in the public domain, is ” imagine the money we would make if there was a home-grown industry of manufacturing wind turbines, in Canada…no more having to import expensive parts from Germany or Denmark”.
When I saw the ENMAX press release and the technical background, what struck home was how the public rarely sees the amount of planning, preparation and construction that goes into the new generation of these industrial size wind farms. It is a lot of work.
For the details, please read at :
http://www.enmax.com/Corporation/Media+Room/Q+and+A+-+Taber+Wind+Power+Project.htm
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:32 am
I agree. It’s great to see that kind of energy generation happening. However, we really need to focus on making Canadians the most energy efficient beings on the planet.
Any energy generation strategy is doomed without sufficient attention paid to this issue.
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:37 am
Are you high?
To make Canadians the most energy efficient beings on the planet would be a monumental task…just getting us even close to, say Sweden or Germany (who are twice as energy-efficient as us), will be a huge, huge improvement - if you give it 20 years.
Small steps brother, small steps. Otherwise we’ll be just talking and talking, like we have been about Kyoto for the past 10 years. Look at how that situation has not changed a bit, despite all the fancy-sounding political strategies and objectives.
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:42 am
From a business perspective, energy efficiency has the quickest and more lucrative payback than ANY form of power generation.
From an emissions perspective, it makes it easier to switch to cleaner energy when there is less capacity.
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:55 am
Sure enough, mate, sure enough…
But consider our overall starting position: we, as a country (since you refer to the whole Canada) are one of the five or six LEAST energy efficient industrial countries out there, only the Aussies, the Americans and Luxembourg (since they are tiny and yet have lots of heavy industry) use more energy per capita. Our carbon intensity per capita is also very high.
What I’m saying is that it will take YEARS of seriously overhauling our approach to how we use energy before we can even begin to “catch up” with most of the Western and Northern European economies.
Then, you also need to consider what some of our largest industries are: aluminum production in Quebec (hugely energy-intensive), car assembly in Ontario (same thing), and oil and gas extraction in Alberta (no need to comment on that). They could all be easily made somewhat more energy efficient, that’s the low-hanging fruit, my friend. If someone from those industries were to take this whole energy savings biz seriously (and Alcan are doing that now…), there would be a realistic starting position.
What you dont wanna do - politically and otherwise - is to start saying ‘let’s make Canada the most energy-efficient country on the planet’. Because you will set yourself up for a big failure.
Why not just say…let’s improve our energy efficiency performance to match the OECD average..? That alone would be a great leap forward.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Jan, I love the article, but I disagree about your attitude of setting long term goals so that Canada is the best in the world. You’re right that in the short term it would take a revolution to change our position on the polluters’ pie graph, but Canadians are more likely to take up the challenge if they keep their eye on the prize: increased savings in the short term, and huge savings along with being the BEST in the world. No missing the bronze medal for us…
October 25th, 2007 at 8:42 am
You’re sort of right.
But then again, what’s wrong with trying for a bronze medal, or even the proverbial quarterfinals? Because, at the present state, we are not even qualifying for the championships themselves.
As a soccer player and a fan, I cloak arguments in sports metaphors.
To make Canada the most energy efficient society in the world would be like making our men’s soccer team reach the Final 8 in the World Cup. We have not even qualified for the World Cup in the past twenty years, let alone ever competed well in it.
In other words, when you set targets impossibly high and you don’t qualify them with reasonable timelines, the situation becomes even worse - and a lot more politically embarassing. Just ask Mr. Dion about Kyoto and meeting Canada’s supposed challenge. And I was in a room with Mr. Dion and his closest advisors in Montreal in December 2005, at that conference…so I saw and heard how earnestly he meant everthing. But being earnest and having the wherewithal to do something are two separate concepts.
How about a goal of simply taking Canada towards 80% of the measure of energy efficiency of the EU countries’ average? 80% because our climate is colder and usual operating distances larger then in most European countries (save for maybe Sweden and Norway). EU because they are leaders in energy efficiency among the major trading blocks of industrialized nations and have regions …as in Germany being quite distinct from say Spain or Italy, the same way as Quebec is distinct from Alberta or BC.