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magazine / jun09
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June 2009 issue |
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FEATURE
On with the wind (Page 2 of 6)
Economic uncertainties, logistical challenges and environmental debates are buffeting this fast-growing energy sector
By John Lorinc with photography by Benoit Aquin
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| The wind farm at L’Anse-à-Valleau, Que., in
operation since November 2007, has 67 turbines that produce 100.5 megawatts of power. One megawatt is a measure of energy conversion equal to one million watts per second.
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Nestled in moose country in the Gaspé’s undulating,
forested interior, Murdochville can be seen as a symbol of
Canada’s faltering industrial past and Quebec’s renewableenergy
future. By 2002, the town’s economic raison d’être
— mining — had vanished and its population had fallen
from a peak of 4,000 to about 1,200. With real estate values
collapsing (houses sold for, on average, $15,000), no other
significant sources of employment and young families
fleeing, Mayor Marc Minville proposed a referendum on
Murdochville’s future.
| A recent study concluded that it would be
possible to source one-fifth of all electricity
in the United States from wind farms. |
In an election that received international media coverage,
65 percent of residents voted to disband the town and ask
the provincial government to buy up their homes so that they
could relocate. It had been a tense and divisive debate, for
there were many residents who loved the isolated community
that functioned like a big family.
“There were people who weren’t talking to their neighbours,”
says Francine Chouillard, who heads the town’s
tourism board. “Even people within families weren’t talking
to one another.”
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| Click map to enlarge |
Around the same time, executives with 3Ci had been
scouting for places to build a wind farm and came across
Murdochville in their research. “We were sniffing the wind,”
says 3Ci president Robert Vincent. Despite its existential turmoil,
the mining town had many things that were attractive
from a wind developer’s point of view: gusty mountaintops,
contractors, a good highway to the coast and, most significantly,
a heavy-duty electricity-transmission corridor — the
mine’s energy lifeline — linked to Hydro-Québec’s grid.
While building the Mont Miller wind farm, 3Ci also
installed 30 turbines on Mont Copper, which overlooks
Murdochville’s impressive mine face.
Nor was 3Ci the only company with its finger in the air.
Innergex Renewable Energy, a Longueuil-based small
hydro developer established in 1990, had also dispatched
wind-surveying consultants to the Gaspé, as well as to the
St. Lawrence’s North Shore.
“When it became more and more probable that Quebec
would develop wind energy,” says Innergex founder Gilles
Lefrançois, “we started installing meteorological towers in
early 1999 to find good places for wind farms.”
Emboldened by the spadework, the citizens of Gaspésie
petitioned the Quebec government to transform the
region into a kind of wind-energy laboratory. With Georges
Farrah, Gaspé’s Member of the
Legislative Assembly, calling for an
economic diversification strategy,
provincial officials overruled the results
of the Murdochville referendum.
The town’s future, the government
decided, lay with the wind.
In fact, Quebec has set its target for
wind energy at 4,000 megawatts. And Murdochville isn’t the
only town banking on a wind-driven revival. In the hills outside
L’Anse-à-Valleau, a struggling fishing village near the
tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, Cartier Wind Energy has built a 67-turbine farm. The $164 million facility, one of six built
or planned in the Gaspé by Cartier, generates 100.5
megawatts of power and has brought new jobs and tax
revenue to the community.
“When all this is built out in 2015, wind will have reached
10 percent of Hydro-Québec’s capacity,” says Lefrançois. And
he doesn’t think the province will stop there. “After we
reach 4,000 megawatts, I’m sure we’ll go to 8,000.”
To get there, the government is inviting bids from wind
developers, then selecting the best ones. The sucessful
bidders sign agreements which guarantee that Hydro-Québec
will purchase their energy for 20 years. Cartier came away
the biggest winner in the Gaspé, with six proposed farms and
a combined generating capacity of 740 megawatts. It is a
$1.2 billion venture, now half built.
For its part, 3Ci teamed up with a large Ontario energy
firm, Northland Power. Completing a third wind farm in
Murdochville, 3Ci has sold its share in one of the two
others to an American company and is planning a new
156-megawatt farm northwest of Québec. The formula is
similar to what brought 3Ci to Murdochville: a windy spot,
a nearby community and access to the grid. Cartier, a much
larger outfit, is also gearing up for the next tranche of wind
bids, with 10 new farms on its radar. The stakes are large,
but 3Ci’s Vincent says his firm has to be selective. “We’re a
very small team, very focused. We can’t afford to chase every
opportunity in the market.”
| Comments on this article | View all comments (17) | Leave a comment | Having worked with alternative energy and fossil fuels the conclusion is we are better off with both. There are increased costs for backup generation, however these are offset because there is a requirement for reserve capacity to maintain reliability of the system. While backup generation is often fueled by fossel fuels, these plants do not run when the wind is blowing thus reducing overall emissions. There are health concerns with wind power but they are less damaging than those associated with fossil fuels. Wind turbines do ruin the landscape and I would not put them in an area where it would ruin the landscape and tourism would suffer. Often overlooked is the comparison of fuel savings from energy efficiency that each homeowner can do to offset their energy footprint. We can all look to the problems caused by power generation but we often forget that these are a result of our consumer demand for more power. We can all be part of the solution.
After researching extensively on coal, nuclear, hydro, solar and wind energy, the only two that stand out of the five is solar and wind. Both are so simple, capturing sunlight and having blades spinning in the wind. I’ve come to the conclusion that sometimes the better things in life are the simplest. With a life expectancy of 30-45 years for both solar and wind, this is far better than mining coal and uranium. It makes no sense: digging holes in the earth to get oil, coal and uranium for energy, or having a wind turbine spinning with the wind and solar panels following the sun for energy. I’ve see many large wind turbines during my investigation, and love the soft noise they make, however standing only 20 feet from them.you can’t hear a thing. Also: most large turbines take up 4 ft of space in a field, which in turn powers 600 homes and can easy plant crop right up to the base. I know which route I’m going — the easy and reliable way.
I am developing a sound insulated home wind turbine power conversion system. Of course it will only work on about 10% of the homes in a community at one time. However during the time those 10% are working they will produce power for 4-8 additional homes. The end result is that if that 10% are tied into the grid they can provide electricity for up to 90% of the homes in that community. Plus there is no need for billions to build new distribution lines, access roads, etc. This is no pipe dream this is the beginning of the end to global warming.
Sam Rotor
i live on Ontario's Oak ridge the wind usually blows strong up here though throughout June of this year June 1-21 2009 we have only had two days of sustained windspeed of plus 15km per hour for at least 18 hours straight. the other 19 days the minimum 15km wind speed hasn't been maintained for a single hour. Where do people get off saying there is no need for backup generation? You have a lot of expensive generators sitting idle as a stark testament to environmental "ignorance"
Re M.Anderson. Wind power does not require 100% fossil fuel backup. All power generators require "backup", it is called contigency and spinning or regulating reserves. Reserves are usually sourced through hydro which ramps up and down rapidly. This is one of the lies perpetrated by wind opponents. The amount of reserves required is dictated by your largest baseload generator. I guess nuclear power needs "backup" as well
Wind power is the great smoke and mirror hoax of the new century. Billions are being wasted on this fairy-tale symbol. Wind needs to be backed up by fossil fuel 100% of the time. So in the end you need to pay for both. Sadly, until thousands and thousands of hectares of land are filled with these rusting industrial machines will people wake up from their green "dream" and realize what a waste it was.
Wind energy can help to decrease the carbon dioxide level in the earth's atmosphere to below 350 parts per million. We must support wind energy the alternative is unacceptable.
You state that Ontario will need to build 2000 kilometers of transmission corridors in order to bring privately owned Green Power to the market. While Wind Turbine land owners are willing sellers and are compensated for hosting wind turbines, the same cannot be said about home and landowners along these 2000 Kilometers whose land is expropriated by Hydro One Networks so that privately operated green power companies can get their product to the Golden Horseshoe market.
We are not NIMBY’s. Our family and our neighbours have hosted 2 major power corridors since 1965 and we are about to get our third line. Hydro One will now control over 20% of our property and Hydro One believes that there is very little financial damage to our property. We do not agree with their assessment.
Since March of 2007 we have had to put our lives on hold as we cannot sell land that in the words of professional appraisers is “condemned”. As home and landowners we have been forced to invest thousands of dollars in time and costs to meet with lawyers, land agents, and Hydro One bureaucrats all of whom are paid by the Ontario taxpayer.
Cabinet Ministers refuse to talk or meet with us and it appears to the 400 landowners from Bruce to Milton that we are orphans in the system. While we support Green and renewable power we are being forced to subsidize it’s the Ontario electrical consumer.
Dennis Threndyle
RR# 1 Elmwood, Ontario
NOG 1S0
416.662.4395
dentrhren@rogers.com
I just drove past a wind farm in upstate New York and reflected on the condemnation of such installations. The purported negative impact on the rural aesthetics that drive tourism in different areas clearly exemplifies the fever pitch at which the anti-wind camps operate. If the emotional energy generated by human resistance to change could be tapped into, we might not need any other supply sources.
It is unfortunate that many voters emerge into the working world and spend their lives without a basic understanding of energy flow, where it comes from and that it is the lifeblood of society. As pointed out many years ago, the event of "peak oil," as first coined by U.S. geologist King Hubbert, like it or not, will change our business-as-usual growth-oriented societies forever. Many knowledgeable energy experts agree that peak oil has arrived.
Today’s young will live in a renewable energy society, or they will have no society. So, the question boils down to which is more important: catering to NIMBY wishes today, or for us collectively laying the groundwork for a sustainable society?
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