July 17, 2008
British Columbia

Huge wind turbines arrive by rail today

A train carrying the first wind turbines to be set up in B.C. will be passing through Prince George today.

Specially commissioned for the task, the train is tentatively expected to reach the city at 1 p.m. as it makes its way north to the future home of the Dokie wind farm, 40 kilometres northwest of Chetwynd.

It’ll will be quite the sight, said Ron Percival of Earthfirst Canada Inc., which owns the farm.

“These are pretty impressive machines and the blades on these turbines are 45 metres long and each one will take up two flat cars,” he said.

The train is 59 cars long, which is enough to carry the equipment for eight turbines – each turbine holds three blades.

The turbines, made by Vestas, a Danish company, are the largest commercial wind turbine available in Canada, Percival said, and each of them are capable of producing three megawatts, “which is a very large capacity for a wind turbine.”

“These are commercial-grade wind turbines that are design to stand in a very extreme climate, a very windy place, for 20 years so they’re very robust machines, heavy duty machines,” Percival said.

The eight will be installed this fall and are the first of 48 turbines intended to be up and operating at the site by fall 2009. Once up, they’ll produce 144 megawatts, enough to power 34,000 homes a year – or enough to power all the homes in Prince George and then some.

By Mark Nielsen
Citizen Staff

Prince George Citizen

16 July 2008


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/07/17/huge-wind-turbines-arrive-by-rail-today/