The first wind power project gets under way
B.C.’s first commercial wind turbine has been erected on a ridge west of Chetwynd, and concrete tower foundations are nearing completion at another project site outside Dawson Creek.
It’s B.C.’s debut as a wind energy producer, long after other provinces have begun harnessing wind to help light homes and industry. The Dokie Wind Project near Chetwynd aims to be first to produce power from seven turbines early next year, with 48 huge windmills spinning by the end of 2009 and phase two to follow at a nearby site.
Bear Mountain Wind near Dawson Creek is on time and on budget for completion of its 34-tower wind farm next November, says its president, Jim Bracken. He acknowledges that the Dokie project may have “bragging rights” for the first producing turbine, but both should be at their full 100 megawatt capacity around the same time next year. Each will provide enough power for 30,000 or more average homes.
Despite B.C.’s reputation as clean, green and nuclear free, there are already dozens of wind farms in the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, across the prairies to Alberta and even one in Yukon. It wasn’t until the B.C. government required BC Hydro to reach self-sufficiency with new clean energy from independent sources that investors turned to this province.
Bear Mountain was conceived by a local cooperative in Dawson Creek. It’s now 100 per cent owned by Calgary-based AltaGas Income Trust, which is diversifying its natural gas production with power projects, including B.C. run-of-river and its first wind farm.
The Canadian Wind Energy Association is hosting its annual conference in Vancouver Oct. 19-22. David Huggill, CanWEA policy manager for Western Canada, says there are several factors making wind a better investment in B.C. One is a recognition that wind and hydro work well together, with utilities able to hold back water when the wind is blowing.
Another is that the best hydro sites are now being developed, and both their construction cost and environmental impact are better recognized.
Wind generally costs more to build per megawatt, and CanWEA will release a strategy document at the conference calling for a monetary value to be placed on its smaller ecological footprint. On the horizon is another incentive, wind projects as a carbon offset for energy companies such as AltaGas.
B.C. Energy Minister Richard Neufeld said BC Hydro’s latest call for clean power produced bids that averaged around $75 a megawatt hour, with wind on the high side compared to run of river.
Tidal and wave generation, by comparison, is estimated to cost $250 to $400.
Tom Fletcher
Similkameen Spotlight
21 October 2008
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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