[Calgarian]

Medicine Hat looks to solar power



Medicine Hat, Alta., is hoping to become the first city in Canada to use solar energy help power the city.

The project would use solar power to create steam that would be fed into the existing city-owned power plant. That steam — instead of natural gas — would power the plant's turbines.

The solar-thermal energy project would provide one megawatt of electricity without emitting any carbon.

"Natural gas, as with other fossil fuels, is non-renewable so over time we're going to have to figure out a way to do things different than we do them today," said Russ Smith, the city's environment manager and the driving force behind the idea.

Smith said Medicine Hat is the perfect place for the project, even though it sits on huge reserves of natural gas.

"We've been aware for quite a while that the Medicine Hat area has some of the highest, if not the highest, solar radiation in Canada, which means we get the most sunlight hours of anywhere in Canada," Smith said.

"As we started to assess the potential for renewable energy in the Medicine Hat area, solar kept coming to the top of the pile … as one of those resources that we need to understand a little bit better."

Guillermo Ordorica-Garcia, with the Alberta Research Council, said the benefit to the environment is sizeable. "There are no fossil fuels being burned at any stage of the process," he said.

While this technology has been successful in California and Spain, Medicine Hat would be the first city in Canada to be powered by solar thermal energy.

The $9 million project has already received $3 million in funding from the city, but will go ahead only if the federal and provincial governments provide the additional $6 million needed.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/10/25/calgary-medicine-hat-solar-power.html

I think this could potentially be a really useful technology, and if it works out hopefully more cities will follow suit.

I think this is actually kind of Ironic because Medicine Hat is trying not to use natural gas to power their city, when the city's economy is almost entirely based off natural gas.

[WhipperSnapper]

One megawatt? Medicine Hat must be a lot smaller than a thought. Not much more than a token gesture even for a community of this size.

[Calgarian]

There are 60 000 in Medicine Hat, and yes, it's more of a token gesture, but still an interesting move.

[agrant]

Solar power will be a minority player at most for powering our cities IMO. I.e., it'll heat your pool, but forget using it to run your TV and computer unless you've got acres of land... :)

[MalcolmTucker]

1 megawatt for solar is pretty big in the Canadian context. At least they are directly offsetting gas use at an existing plant that can be switched over to gas at a moments notice, eliminating the backup generation needed for most wind and solar installations.

9 million for one megawatt might seem a little steep, but you have to start somewhere. I am sure if they decide to install a second megawatt later the cost will be more realistic.

[Calgarian]

At least it's something.

What other green power facilities are there in Canada? We have a pretty good sized wind farm in Pincher Creek AB, Apparently it powers the C-train in Calgary, or part of it.

[Bigtime]

At least it's something.

What other green power facilities are there in Canada? We have a pretty good sized wind farm in Pincher Creek AB, Apparently it powers the C-train in Calgary, or part of it.

I believe a company is proposing another big wind farm in the Camrose/Stettler/Lacombe area.

[Calgarian]

I believe a company is proposing another big wind farm in the Camrose/Stettler/Lacombe area.

Good, if there are 2 things alberta gets lots of, it's sunshine and wind!

[MalcolmTucker]

At least it's something.

What other green power facilities are there in Canada? We have a pretty good sized wind farm in Pincher Creek AB, Apparently it powers the C-train in Calgary, or part of it.

Well, depends what you count as green. If you count nuclear and large scale hydro we have majority green power in Canada!

[Calgarian]

Green would mean environmentally friendly, I don't think re-directing rivers would qualify. Spent nuclear fuel can be stored deep underground and wouldn't have any adverse effects as far as we know, but with the threat of a leak or metldown in the plant, I wouldn't consider it green. Nuclear Fusion will be the #1 green technology when we master it, but we're probably at least another 20-30 years away from that.

Are there any wind farms in other parts of the country?

[vid]

They're building a "solar forest" on an empty lot downtown here. It's going to look really stupid. There are wind and solar farms planned for all over this region but none of them have even broken ground yet. I think they should stick some wind turbines on the lake, it'll make us look even more like Northern Europe. :tup:

Nuclear waste can be 97% recycled but we don't do that here. The Europeans do it though, so I would imagine their nuclear plants are the greenest high-quantity energy sources in existence. Hydro dams generate huge amounts of green house gases (methane, primarily) through rotting plant matter in the reservoir (this isn't a problem with old dams, however), and the also remove trees which makes the carbon sink smaller, thus reducing the environments capacity for natural carbon capturing. That isn't very friendly. When you consider the displacement of habitats and so on, it looks even worse. Except for coal, hydro electricity changes the physical environment the most. It has literally blurred the boundary between the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay watersheds. (Rivers flowing backwards and whatnot.)

I would count nuclear as green only if the rods are recycled, and hydro is only green if it is already existing. The only real drawback for nuclear is that the material has to come from mines, but at least those mines don't involved completely demolishing mountains or ripping apart the surface of the planet to squeeze oil out of dirt.

I think we should go with solar panels and small wind turbines on private homes, with nuclear power as a large scale generator for industry and buildings where solar panels and wind turbines are impractical (like an apartment building or skyscraper). As technology improves, smaller panels and turbines will be able to generate more energy in less obstructing ways. All flat roofs in the country, especially those on schools, malls, or big box stores, should be used for solar or wind power generation. Buildings like Walmart stores could use grey water capture, green roofs, solar panels on the roof and wind turbines in parking lots to become virtually carbon neutral and much more environmentally friendly.

[Calgarian]

If you were so inclined, you could probably get your house off the grid with enough solar panels and a wind turbine, but your neghbours would probably claim the radiation from your turbine is giving them cancer or something. lol

[Mister F]

Are there any wind farms in other parts of the country?
Lots actually. There's close to 3 GW currently installed, and that's set to at least double in the next few years.

http://www.canwea.ca/images/installed_capacity_e.jpg

http://www.canwea.ca/farms/index_e.php
http://www.canwea.ca/pdf/Proposed%20projects.pdf

[vid]

If you were so inclined, you could probably get your house off the grid with enough solar panels and a wind turbine, but your neghbours would probably claim the radiation from your turbine is giving them cancer or something. lol

Not radiation, it is the vibrations and shadow flicker. We need to conduct a study to figure out if there really is a valid point there or is people are being reactionary. I don't think large wind turbines should be near homes, which is why I support them being out in the water (which has only been legal in Ontario for a short time). The wind on Lake Superior is like the wind on the ocean. It is very fast and it never stops. That is a huge potential for wind power, yet we're building them on the other side of the mountains from all of this, practically beside people's homes. Why? :shrug:

[Bigtime]

Thanks for the graphic Mister F! Alberta could easily have a production number like Ontario with all the wind we get here.

[MalcolmTucker]

Thanks for the graphic Mister F! Alberta could easily have a production number like Ontario with all the wind we get here.
Yeah, the question is whether having that much wind power would actually reduce the need for new conventional power plants. My guess would be no.

[Calgarian]

Not radiation, it is the vibrations and shadow flicker. We need to conduct a study to figure out if there really is a valid point there or is people are being reactionary. I don't think large wind turbines should be near homes, which is why I support them being out in the water (which has only been legal in Ontario for a short time). The wind on Lake Superior is like the wind on the ocean. It is very fast and it never stops. That is a huge potential for wind power, yet we're building them on the other side of the mountains from all of this, practically beside people's homes. Why? :shrug:

I heard a story on the news about someone complaining about the radiation from it, similar to cell towers. Sounded pretty weak to me.

[MalcolmTucker]

I heard a story on the news about someone complaining about the radiation from it, similar to cell towers. Sounded pretty weak to me.

They have been pretty vocal here in Ontario, when the "Green Energy Act" removed their right to argue against it using zoning rules. They did end up getting the mandatory setback increased by quite a bit due to their bellyaching however.

[vid]

Everything gives off radiation of some kind, you have to be more specific.

[MalcolmTucker]

Everything gives off radiation of some kind, you have to be more specific.

They are worried about low frequency noise. Plus radiation from the extra powerlines needed to support wind power.

[MichaelS]

At least it's something.

What other green power facilities are there in Canada? We have a pretty good sized wind farm in Pincher Creek AB, Apparently it powers the C-train in Calgary, or part of it.

The C-Train is powered 100% by wind power (hence the "Ride the wind" campaign). The City of Calgary also has a contract with Enmax to provide 75% of their electricity requirements through renewable resources (wind power). In 2012, this is set to go to 100%.

[MalcolmTucker]

The C-Train is powered 100% by wind power (hence the "Ride the wind" campaign). The City of Calgary also has a contract with Enmax to provide 75% of their electricity requirements through renewable resources (wind power). In 2012, this is set to go to 100%.

The only issue is 100% from wind power only means that 100% of equivalent power to what is consumed is put on the grid by wind. It is an offset, not a replacement. Since Alberta does not have diverse wind sources (it either blows in the south or it doesn't, unlike Germany and Denmark where production is spread throughout many moderately windy places all able to work together to produce some baseload power) wind power in Alberta as deployed today does not reduce the need to build new coal or gas power plants.

[Calgarian]

The only issue is 100% from wind power only means that 100% of equivalent power to what is consumed is put on the grid by wind. It is an offset, not a replacement. Since Alberta does not have diverse wind sources (it either blows in the south or it doesn't, unlike Germany and Denmark where production is spread throughout many moderately windy places all able to work together to produce some baseload power) wind power in Alberta as deployed today does not reduce the need to build new coal or gas power plants.

Yeah, it is a marketing campaign more than anything. And it's windy in Pincher Creek like 90% of the time, so it should reduce the demand for power plants to an extent, but not completely.

[agent_imperial]

Yeah, it is a marketing campaign more than anything. And it's windy in Pincher Creek like 90% of the time, so it should reduce the demand for power plants to an extent, but not completely.

The wind does not blow with sufficient strength for wind farms to generate 90% of the time. The actual figure is much lower.

Even in Pincher Creek where the quality of the wind resource is top notch; the capacity factor of a wind farm is only around 40%. Basically that means over the course of a year a 100MW wind farm's average output is only 40MW. Most of the wind farms in Ontario have capacity factors in the low 30% range. It is also quite common for wind farms to produce 0MW for days at a time.

The problem Sir Humphrey is raising is that no matter how many wind farms we install, an equal capacity of conventional generation plants must be built as well for those days where the wind isn't blowing. It isn't cost effective to basically be building double the generation capacity to allow wind into the mix. I think the real question is; Are consumers willing to pay much more for their electricity to come from green sources? I'm not so sure that they are yet. This is the key to making green power work.

Don't get me wrong... wind power is clean, becoming cost effective, and certainly can be part of the mix but we need to use other sources that we can turn on and off on command to match consumption. Hydro and wind for example are particularly well matched for each other. When the wind blows the hydro dams reduce their generation by an equal amount that the wind was producing and store the potential energy of the water in their reservoirs for times where wind is not blowing.

[You Need A Thneed]

We should build some large scale solar power here in Southern Alberta, it's only sunny 300 days a year. I'd like to see something like putting a couple of solar panels on everyone's roof, that would go a long way to providing power needs.

[DizzyEdge]

T
Nuclear waste can be 97% recycled but we don't do that here.

Any ideas of what sort of volume of waste Canada's nuke plants generate yearly currently, as well as if 97% of the waste is recycled, recycled into what, into new rods? Are the plants that inefficient that a depleted rod is only 3% used up?

[MalcolmTucker]

We should build some large scale solar power here in Southern Alberta, it's only sunny 300 days a year. I'd like to see something like putting a couple of solar panels on everyone's roof, that would go a long way to providing power needs.

Alberta's peak power load is in the winter during the late afternoon, early evening - definitely not peak solar times. Think the ultracold days with no wind and winter smog in Calgary. Less pronounced now with LED Christmas Lights, but on cold days when everyone's furnace motors are turning the grid strains.

[MalcolmTucker]

Any ideas of what sort of volume of waste Canada's nuke plants generate yearly currently, as well as if 97% of the waste is recycled, recycled into what, into new rods? Are the plants that inefficient that a depleted rod is only 3% used up?

Since Canada's plants use natural non enriched uranium, the fuel has to be mixed in different ways to work well beyond the initial use. This mixing costs more money than creating new fuel and storing the old waste. The plants aren't inefficient, and the nuclear fuel cycle isn't. The high level waste (waste that needs to be stored at least 10,000 years) volumes are already very low.

http://www.cna.ca/curriculum/cna_safety/images/nuclearwaste4.gif
A CANDU fuel assembly is approximately 0.5 metres long. Stacked like cordwood, all of Canada's used nuclear fuel could fit into six hockey rinks.

[vid]

Six hockey rinks is quite a bit.

The best place for wind and solar will be on buildings in smaller scales to support just those buildings, primarily off grid with the grid as a back up and to serve large customers. Wind power is most efficient in the water where the wind blows stronger. Sorry, Alberta. Pincher Creek might be windy 90% of the time but Lake Superior is windy 99.9% of the time and that wind will almost always be stronger, especially in winter when solar is much less practical north of 51°.

[Calgarian]

The wind does not blow with sufficient strength for wind farms to generate 90% of the time. The actual figure is much lower.

Even in Pincher Creek where the quality of the wind resource is top notch; the capacity factor of a wind farm is only around 40%. Basically that means over the course of a year a 100MW wind farm's average output is only 40MW. Most of the wind farms in Ontario have capacity factors in the low 30% range. It is also quite common for wind farms to produce 0MW for days at a time.

The problem Sir Humphrey is raising is that no matter how many wind farms we install, an equal capacity of conventional generation plants must be built as well for those days where the wind isn't blowing. It isn't cost effective to basically be building double the generation capacity to allow wind into the mix. I think the real question is; Are consumers willing to pay much more for their electricity to come from green sources? I'm not so sure that they are yet. This is the key to making green power work.

Don't get me wrong... wind power is clean, becoming cost effective, and certainly can be part of the mix but we need to use other sources that we can turn on and off on command to match consumption. Hydro and wind for example are particularly well matched for each other. When the wind blows the hydro dams reduce their generation by an equal amount that the wind was producing and store the potential energy of the water in their reservoirs for times where wind is not blowing.


Good point, I understood what Sir Humphrey was getting at, but forgot that when the wind is either too fast or too slow, they turn the wind turbines off.

[Calgarian]

Alberta's peak power load is in the winter during the late afternoon, early evening - definitely not peak solar times. Think the ultracold days with no wind and winter smog in Calgary. Less pronounced now with LED Christmas Lights, but on cold days when everyone's furnace motors are turning the grid strains.

I thought Summer was the peak in electrical consumption, air conditioners use a lot of energy while a furnace burns fossil fuels, (unless you have a fan coil or something like that).

[MalcolmTucker]

I thought Summer was the peak in electrical consumption, air conditioners use a lot of energy while a furnace burns fossil fuels, (unless you have a fan coil or something like that).

Not many Albertans have a/c compared to lets say Ontarians. Everyone has a furnace or two that has a motor. Add to that all the other electrical appliances and lighting we are more likely to use on a dark cold day and it results in this:

News Release: Frigid Temperatures Drive Electricity Demand to New Record
[Posted: December 16, 2008]

As the mercury plunged across the province, yesterday, Monday, December 15, at 6:00 p.m., Alberta’s demand for electricity reached an all time high of 9806 megawatts (MW), breaking last winter’s record of 9710 MW set on January 28, 2008. [More (http://www.aeso.ca/downloads/December_16_2008_winter_peak_REVISED.pdf)]

[vid]

Here, winter is the peak. We use more energy to heat our homes, and summer doesn't too hot so fewer people have air conditioners. I would imagine that in Calgary, even less would have them since it is less humid. Same reason you don't see backyard outdoor pools in this part of the country while the Quebec-Windsor corridor is full of them.

[lubicon]

I thought Summer was the peak in electrical consumption, air conditioners use a lot of energy while a furnace burns fossil fuels, (unless you have a fan coil or something like that).

I would say the minority of homes in Alberta have AC, but almost 100% of them have a furnace. Yes a furnace uses natural gas to generate the heat, but the blower (fan) which moves the air through the duct system uses electricity. In summer, people aren't using lights nearly as much. In winter everyone comes home from work at 5PM (more or less) and turns on lights, washing machines, ovens etc which puts a huge load on the system.

Peak electrical demand in Alberta is in the early evening hours during the winter.

[lubicon]

I read a erally good article a few weeks ago (can't remember where it was) that discussed some of the differences in the Canadian electrical market from province to province. Wind power was part of the discussion and it made some good points.

To use Ontario and Alberta as examples:

Ontario:
the generation market is regulated. Producers are given fixed prices for the power they produce, and the provincial regulator gives even higher price gaurantees to generators of wind power. No matter how much electricity is generated the wind producers will get a fixed price. It is a classic case of price not being tied to demand.

Alberta:
The generation market is not regulated and the price that producers receive for their product (electricity) fluctuates up and down depending on the market. In periods of low demand the price goes down, in periods of high demand it goes up. Basic economic theory. The trouble for wind power producers is this: the province has a large supply of 'static' power producers. These are the big coal fired plants (natural gas too) that produce most of our power. They are running 24/7 supplying Alberta with a more or less fixed amount of power. Wind power is up and down depending on if the wind is blowing or not, as we have been discussing. So when the wind IS blowing, MORE electricity is entering the market and the effect is that prices go down. When the wind IS NOT blowing, LESS total electricity is generated and the price actually goes up. This is assuming a balanced market of supply and demand.

So Ontario is subsidizing its wind power generators by giving them an artificially high price for their product, while wind producers in Alberta actually take a kick in the nuts becasue the product they produce actually makes the price go down.

Incidentally for those who live in Alberta, AESO, the Alberta Electrical System Operator which has the responsibilty for keeping watch over Alberta's electrical system put out a pamphlet in the mail last week. It was very informative and gives a good overview of how the electrical market works here.

[You Need A Thneed]

I would say the minority of homes in Alberta have AC, but almost 100% of them have a furnace. Yes a furnace uses natural gas to generate the heat, but the blower (fan) which moves the air through the duct system uses electricity. In summer, people aren't using lights nearly as much. In winter everyone comes home from work at 5PM (more or less) and turns on lights, washing machines, ovens etc which puts a huge load on the system.

Peak electrical demand in Alberta is in the early evening hours during the winter.

Also, lots of people don't hesitate to plug in a 1.5 kW heater or something like that in the winter- then leave them constantly on for hours at a time. More people do that than have AC here.

[MalcolmTucker]

So Ontario is subsidizing its wind power generators by giving them an artificially high price for their product, while wind producers in Alberta actually take a kick in the nuts becasue the product they produce actually makes the price go down.

Wind producers have a fixed feed in tariff in Alberta. I will update this post with it when I find it.

[lubicon]

Wind producers have a fixed feed in tariff in Alberta. I will update this post with it when I find it.

You may well be correct, in which case the article I was reading was wrong.

[lubicon]

OK, I found the article I was referring to. It's from the October 6 edition of teh Calgary Herald. I can't get the link to work. Here it is:

Winds of change

By Dina O'Meara, Calgary Herald October 6, 2009

Construction is ongoing at TransAlta's Summerview 2 wind farm with the installation of Vestas V90 turbines on September 15, 2009Photograph by: Gavin Young, Calgary HeraldDrive south of Claresholm on Highway 2 on any clear day and a true sign of the times will gradually appear straight ahead on a distant ridge.

Lined up along the horizon like watchtowers --or the hairs of a startled dog--are dozens of wind mills, poised to harvest the area's abundant source of emissions-free energy.

The southwest corner of Alberta is one of North America's prime wind corridors and a magnet for generators looking to profit from the free fuel. About 450 wind towers straddle the gently rolling landscape, looking out on ranchlands and grain fields to the east, framed by the Rocky Mountains to the west.

Another 300 or so towers are either being erected, are in the regulatory queue with the Alberta Utilities Commission or have advanced beyond the drawing board to corporate financing.

"I would estimate that the proposed number of megawatts for the dozen active files before us add up to about 1,000 megawatts," Jim Law with the commission said. "But not all the active files might be expected to come to fruition."

A number of the applications have been before the regulator for several years, around 400 MW worth, but have yet to progress to a complete application stage, he said.

Wind power projects have been driving several billion dollars' worth of transmission proposals in the province, including the under-construction Pincher Creek to Lethbridge 240-kilovolt loop that will increase the grid's capacity by about 1,000 megawatts.

The Alberta Electric System Operator estimated up to 2,700 megawatts of wind power will be added to the grid within the next decade, the driving force behind two major transmission projects, the $1.8-billion southern Alberta development and the $1-billion east-central Hanna development.

For Cindy and Barry Welsh, the 26-storey-tall power generators represent added income to their mixed grain and cattle operation, and a certain sense of the future unfolding on the Prairie landscape.

"As far as I'm concerned, they don't hurt anything," Cindy said. "I'd rather have that than all the coal or even the natural gas operations."

The Welsh's 2,000-hectare spread sits smack in the middle of prime wind farm country, right between Pincher Creek and Stand Off.

They are part of one of the province's largest wind farms, TransAlta's McBride Lake, which has about 114 mills in operation.

TransAlta owns and operates just under 200 megawatts of wind power in the province, with another 132 MW under construction at its Blue Trail and Summerview 2 farms. None of the turbines was bought "off the shelf," noted Jason Edworthy, wind guru with TransAlta.

Edworthy has been involved in wind power since the mid-1970s, and points out the advances made in the industry, including more powerful turbines that allow companies to erect fewer towers to get the same amount of power.

Cindy and Barry Welsh started out with one pilot wind turbine in 2001, and now have seven o. 6-megawatt turbines spinning on one quarter section and one larger tower on another quarter, all with TransAlta.

Every month they receive a percentage fee based on the average power generated, meaning the winter months are more profitable.

None of the structures is on cultivated lands, so they don't have the same concerns some of their neighbours do, Cindy said.

The couple is also negotiating with Canadian Hydro Developers, operator of the 70-MW Soderglen wind farm behind their home, to put more towers on their land, although she did admit to some concern over the number of towers springing up in the region.

A number of unique circumstances make Alberta a prime location for wind generation, in addition to the reliable gusts in the southwest. The province is the only jurisdiction in Canada with a deregulated wholesale and retail power market, attracting a number of profit-minded competitors to the fore.

The open market also is the reason Alberta does not have a provincial target for renewable power, nor for any specific fuel source, public affairs officer Kristin Stolarz said.

"Bringing renewables online is absolutely important," Stolarz said. "But individual companies make their own choices about what type of generation to bring online in the open, competitive market the province has."

Wind power added to the grid helps lower prices, which puts developers in an awkward place since they don't have control over the fuel source, said one industry expert.

The way the Alberta electricity market is set up, it works against the interests of wind generators, says Sheldon Fulton, executive director of the Industrial Power Consumers of Alberta Association.

When the turbines spin and add megawatts to the grid, they subtract from the load demand. So if there's 9,000 MW of demand and the wind starts blowing adding 200 MW to the grid, the demand load is reduced to 8,800 MW. Reduced load means a lower price and lower returns for the developer.

Which is why Bryan DeNeve, vice-president of business development with Capital Power, has wind operations in Ontario and not Alberta--yet.

"In Alberta the economics of wind depend a lot on price forecasts, and with some of the drop in natural gas prices, that has tended to erode some of the economics for wind projects here in this province," DeNeve said.

"So we wouldn't expect to be working on developing any wind for at least another year or two."

Calgary-owned Enmax owns or has contracts on about 300 of the province's current roster of wind generation and more than 190 turbines. The utility is the largest distributor of green power in Canada, with its Ontario contracts, but sees limits to the source.

When the wind blows, a massive amount of power flows to the grid and "any time you get that amount of power into the auction system of the power pool, it's going to crush price," said Rob Falconer, director of distributed generation for the utility.

The push to buy carbon offsets in a carbon-constrained world plays a strong role in developers' estimating profit margins, but existing uncertainty over prices makes the debate over sinking billions of dollars into extensive transmission projects even more relevant, he said.

"If they go ahead and put this transmission in there and nobody in the wind industry wants to build down there because they can't get the price, then we've sunk money into assets that will never be used," Falconer said. "That's why we need oversight."

Alberta Wind Energy Corp. president Stewart Duncan agreed carbon credits played an important part in his company's strategic entry into Alberta.

"What will probably increase power prices is the cost of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestering," he said. "So although power prices are low now, there will be an increase when the economy begins to recover and natural gas prices begin to recover."

Under Alberta legislation, big emitters have to pay $15 per tonne into a technology fund for any limit set by the province.

"That works out to be the equivalent of about $9.75 per megawatt for wind farm producers," Duncan said.

Alberta Wind's break-even power price for its projects is $50 to $60 per megawatt hour, he said. This year, prices have averaged around $35 to $45.

The company has a 46-MW project at Old Man River that is in the process of getting final municipal approval for larger turbines.

The larger 2.3-MW Siemens turbines are 10 metres higher than the previously applied for 1.8-MW Vesta turbines and would see the number of towers reduced to 20 from 27.

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

[MalcolmTucker]

On wind power in Alberta I guess I was wrong, as there is no Feed In, but there is guaranteed sale. I asked my father who designed the power purchase and sale models for the Nova Plant up near Red Deer about it and he replied with this:

In Alberta wind power is ‘guaranteed dispatch’, which means that whenever it is produced it is sold, but it is sold at whatever the current price is. When large amounts of wind are online it depresses the price but the operating cost of wind is quite low so that is the risk that investors take when they build the generating facility.

Here is the website that shows current prices and demand and pricing for the past 24 hours.


http://ets.aeso.ca/index.html


This is the website that shows what the current demand is and which facilities are providing it. The ‘30Ravg($)’ is the average price over the past 30 calendar days. This is currently quite low.

http://ets.aeso.ca/ets_web/ip/Market/Reports/CSDReportServlet

“MCR” is the rated capacity of the facility in MW, “TNG” is how much they are currently providing to the grid and “DCR” is the reserve capacity that the System Operator is paying for. Wind will always have a DCR of zero.

All facilities bid a price for electricity supply and the System Operator dispatches plants starting from the lowest price until the amount supplied matches current system demand. Wind power is automatically bid in at zero and quite a few gas fired cogeneration units also bid at zero. They are either ‘must run’ units or ones where their operators think it isn’t worth trying to maximize their sales value. There was at least once this year where demand was less than 7000 MW and the price was zero. A facility like Joffre can bid in capacity in various increments at different prices so, for instance, they can bid 100 MW at $25/MW, then bid another 100 MW at $45/MW and the next 50 MW at $60/MW, etc. In a typical day the hourly price will range from about $7.65/MW around 2 am to around $90 or $100/MW at about 6 pm. In the past 24 hrs the price minimum was $15.00 and the max was $60.94/MW.

All plants that are dispatched get the hourly price. If the wind happens to be blowing during one of the occasions when prices are at the system max price they would get $999/MW, but usually the system price wouldn’t get that high if there was much wind blowing.

The other thing that some wind producers do is enter into a ‘CFD’ (contract for differences) contract with someone like ENMAX. ENMAX will guarantee a certain price for their electricity and then they resell that amount of electricity at a premium to consumers who want ‘green’ power. In any given hour the electricity might not be coming from a windmill but the idea is to average out the quantity over the year. This helps the wind producers get a premium price because they are often producing at times (like around sunrise in the summer) when electricity prices aren’t very high.

So I guess you could say in Alberta the market has worked. New wind farms won't be profitable until the electricity they produce is required on the margin. Unneeded wind farms won't be built. Of course, some people have an ideological or public relations motivation to get as much wind power built as possible but if you really care about the environment, building extra wind power that can't be used is a big waste of resources that could be used to save the environment in another way.

[Nicko999]

If only we were sunnier(Southern Ontario or extreme Southern Quebec)...

We already have hydro electricity here but some solar power would be welcomed. Actually if you wanna invest in something, it would be a good idea to buy big solar panels and produce your own electricity. The news were showing a guy in North Bay doing it. He even had surplus and managed to sell some for extra bucks.

Canada has to have more green power. This is the future.

[vanman]

I didn't know the C-Train was powered solely by wind, pretty cool.

Here in BC a massive offshore wind power project was recently announced:


October 15, 2009
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/vannmann/120.jpg
SIEMENS
The Naikun Wind Energy Group is planning to build the same 3.6 MW turbines used at the Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm in Liverpool Bay, England (pictured above).

British Columbia offshore wind project to use European technology

RICHARD GILBERT

A Vancouver company is proposing to build an offshore wind farm in northwestern B.C., using unique marine construction techniques and equipment developed in Europe.

NaiKun Wind Energy Group is developing plans for the construction of the NaiKun Offshore Wind Energy Project. The project would be located in the shallow waters northeast of Hecate Strait, between Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) and Prince Rupert on the B.C. mainland.

“On this wind energy project the work is independent and there is a lot of repetition” said Mike O’Connor, president of Naikun. “The turbines are all identical pieces of construction that are interconnected and link to an offshore platform, which is the most sophisticated component on the project.”

The project involves the construction of 110 wind turbine generators with a plant capacity of 396 megawatts (MW).

“The foundation for the turbine, which is very common in Europe, is a giant open-ended steel tube about 4.5 to 5 metres in diameter,” said O’Connor. “They are 55-85 mm in thickness, with the thickest section at the seabed, where there are the greatest forces on the piles.”

Construction of each foundation requires an enormous jack-up vessel, designed to handle high winds and waves.

The foundations are transported to the site by barge and received by the vessel, which uses a 440-ton crane and a pile guiding frame to lift them into place.

A 200 to 250 ton pile driver places the piles into the seabed, where the water is a depth of 12 to 20 metres at low tide.

“A transition piece, which is 20 metres long, is then slipped on top of the steel pile,” said O’Connor. “This piece is the transition form the steel pile foundation to the bottom of the turbine tower. It is in the tidal portion, so it is specially treated with anti-corrosive paint. Ladders and bumpers are installed through the tidal zone, so staff can do maintenance.”

There is a five-metre overlap between the two sections, which is sealed with a special quick-setting high-strength grout.

Once the grout sets, the foundation become one piece. There is a giant flange on the transition piece that meets up with a flange for the installation of the wind turbine tower.

The jack-up barge has storage for tower sections, which are lifted into place and secured. The nacelle or hub of the wind turbine generator is lifted about 80 metres above the water to the top of the tower.

The blades are lifted vertically attached to the rotor

Once this is completed, the jack-up moves to the next location and continues the same operation.

This construction process is estimated to take about 1.8 days per foundation including an allowance for weather delays.

Actual working time at each site is expected to last less than one day; with the pile driving itself, taking two to four hours. Foundation installation takes place 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The platform that forms the deck of the offshore converter station will be constructed and installed in the same way.

The platform will accommodate the transformers, equipment, maintenance supplies, fuel, waste storage, boat access facilities, and a helicopter pad.

It will be built on four or six steel foundations and will be supported by a self-elevating platform.

[bob1954]

Isn't Alberta not only one of "windiest" but one of the "sunniest" areas in NA? Also, I would think with that cost formula for wind, not to mention an area large enough for these wind farms to develope, I would think solar would be far more cost effective and have a smaller physical footprint. IMO

[Nicko999]

Isn't Alberta not only one of "windiest" but one of the "sunniest" areas in NA? Also, I would think with that cost formula for wind, not to mention an area large enough for these wind farms to develope, I would think solar would be far more cost effective and have a smaller physical footprint. IMO

Unfortunately, Canada do not have the necessary sun strength in winter.

[craneSpotter]

Green would mean environmentally friendly, I don't think re-directing rivers would qualify. Spent nuclear fuel can be stored deep underground and wouldn't have any adverse effects as far as we know, but with the threat of a leak or metldown in the plant, I wouldn't consider it green. Nuclear Fusion will be the #1 green technology when we master it, but we're probably at least another 20-30 years away from that.

Are there any wind farms in other parts of the country?

What is Green Power?

Green Power encompasses a range of environmentally friendly alternatives to the traditional sources of electricity generation in Canada. There are two key criteria for Green Power: it must be generated from renewable resources and it must have minimal impact on the environment.

Recent opinion polls show that an overwhelming majority of Canadians support the use of Green Power as a source of electricity. To most people, that means more wind turbines, solar cells and hydro-electricity. However, there is no consensus about what is and what isn't Green Power. For some, it is anything that isn't "brown power", meaning any technology that does not involve burning coal or other fossil fuels. Proponents of nuclear power, for example, cite low air pollution and carbon emissions to support its inclusion in the Green Power sector. Nuclear power is not included here because it uses uranium, a non-renewable resource. The nuclear waste remains a potential health, safety and security hazard for thousands of years and we do not have a permanent nuclear waste disposal site.

While the main focus of this guide is on Green Power used to generate electricity, there are a few examples illustrating how low-impact renewables that generate heat can displace the need for conventional electricity, where it has been used to heat buildings or water.

The Consumers' Guide defines Green Power using the criteria set by Environment Canada's Environmental Choice Program, which gives EcoLogo certification to Alternative Source Energy Generation from natural sources, such as wind and sun, as well as low-impact technologies, including small-scale hydro, certain biomass and biogas technologies, and geothermal energy. With continuing research into new and cleaner energy technologies, these criteria may be subject to review and revision. For details on the various methods of generating Green Power, see What are Green Power Technologies.

[SFUVancouver]

Anyone who says hydro isn't green power is, quite simply, completely out to lunch.

Total Direct Emissions

Company | mWh | Emissions | KG/mWh
Hydro-Quebec | 206,012,000 | 125,615 | 0.61
BC Hydro | 99,932,000 | 228,871 | 2.29
Manitoba Hydro | 35,366,000 | 475,472 | 13.44
NFLD & Labrador Hydro | 39,230,000 | 1,012,280 | 25.8
OPG | 105,100,000 | 28,667,470 | 272.76
NB Power | 18,180,000 | 6,442,000 | 354.35
SaskPower | 18,744,000 | 14,009,886 | 747.43
Transalta | 37,173,000 | 29,405,070 | 791.03
Nova Scotia Power | 11,862,000 | 10,062,081 | 848.26
ATCO | 8,020,263 | 9,523,948 | 1,187.49

Source: Corporate Knights magazine, fall 2009, issue 29, page 28. It cites www.ghgreporting.gc.ca