Peace and Environment News* February 2003
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Peace and Environment News * February 2003 |
by Michelle Wardman
 Pickering Wind Generating Station. Photo: Jacquie Johnson. |
According to Ontario Power Generation (OPG), "Wind power is one of the fastest growing sources of electricity generation in the world." OPG's contribution to this particular "green power" movement involves the current operation of two Ontario wind turbine facilities. The most recently installed facility is located near Kincardine, on Lake Huron.
Both Huron and Pickering Wind Generating Stations form part of OPG's commitment to quadruple their green power portfolio to 500 megawatts (MW) by 2005, involving an investment of 50 million dollars. In addition to exploring wind energy, OPG's green power initiatives include small hydro, biogas, and solar.
The Pickering Wind Generating Station, located on OPG's Pickering Nuclear site, was installed in August, 2001 and at 1.8 (MW) is one of North America's largest wind turbines. The turbine was manufactured by Vestas Wind Systems, the world's largest manufacturer of wind turbines, in Denmark. Once completed, the turbine was shipped by sea to Oshawa in various compartments, and the compartments were then trucked from the Oshawa port to the Pickering site.
OPG's website contains an online brochure as well as a short video, allowing browsers insight into how Pickering's wind turbine was built and currently operates. The website provides lots of technical background information about how wind turbines are designed and their effectiveness as an energy source. The following information, taken from OPG's website, gives a fairly concrete image of Ontario's largest wind generator:
"Capacity of this 117-metre turbine, called the Pickering Wind Generating Station, is 1.8 MW. The 78 metre steel tower is topped with a generating unit turned by a three-blade rotor." The rotating nacelle, found at the top of the tower where the blades meet, is "about the size of an inter-city bus." Power is fed via underground cables into the electrical grid system and "can produce enough emission-free energy to supply the annual electricity needs of about 600 average Ontario homes. During the first year of operation Pickering Wind produced 2.2 Gwh (1 Gwh=1,000 MWh) hours of electricity and was available 86 per cent of the time."
The website's short documentary clip also draws attention to the idea that wind power works "best in association with more conventional forms of electrical power, nuclear, for example." This idea is echoed by John Earl, spokesperson for OPG, who describes wind power as providing an "intermittent source" of energy, adding that it is reliable only "when the wind is blowing" and that its "average annual capacity factor is about 30 per cent of the time."
Earl also describes the Pickering Wind Turbine as being a source of "clean, efficient energy" and that the average consumer "is becoming more and more interested" in this particular form of green power.
Huron Wind Generating Station is OPG's most recent green power initiative. Originally planned as a joint 50/50 venture with British Energy Canada Ltd., Bruce Power is now in the process of taking over British Energy's share. Huron Wind is located on land near the Bruce A and B nuclear generating facility on Lake Huron, in the municipality of Kincardine, Ontario, and according to John Earl, provides "an even better source of wind power" than the Pickering location.
"We had gained the expertise and knowledge from doing Pickering," says Earl, accounting for the successful operation of over 5 MW currently being generated at the Huron site. Earl also adds that the topographical conditions at Huron Wind are excellent, fitting in with the ideal "large, flat expanse of surface situated along a coast line or long body of water." Huron Wind's five 1.8 MW turbines currently generate enough clean electricity for 3,000 homes.
For more information on Huron or Pickering Wind Generating Stations, visit www.opg.com or www.brucepower.com. If you would like to find out what's happening on a global scale with other wind generation projects, visit www.agores.org
Michelle Wardman is on the PEN Editorial Committee.
Converted February 1, 2003 - Lg
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