Wind Power News: Alberta
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Whitla Wind farm will be largest in Alberta after planned expansions
The Whitla Wind farm will become the largest in Alberta, according to new construction plan announced Tuesday by owner Capital Power, which said a second expansion will be rolled into work on an additional phase next year. The Edmonton-based electricity producer said Tuesday that it will build a previously unannounced third phase to the array of turbines that sit south of Bow Island, southwest of Medicine Hat. Combined with Phase 2, the work will add 151 megawatts of production capacity . . . Complete story »
Throwing caution to the wind turbines in Cypress County
Re: Cypress Wind hopes to lessen footprint during delay – Collin Gallant, June 9, 2020 A number of industrial wind energy projects have been proposed and/or approved in Cypress County which may have a devastating negative impact on local residents. The total number of turbines proposed exceeds 500 within the county. Globally, wind turbines produce power at about 30 per cent of nameplate capacity. Every one of these turbines will require near 100 per cent fossil fuel backup for times . . . Complete story »
Cypress Wind hopes to lessen footprint during delay
Disruption in the global supply chain is cited as the cause for a one-year delay in building a major wind farm in southeast Alberta, but the company behind Cypress Wind says the time could be used to lessen the footprint of the facility that is still proceeding with the $250-million project. EDF Renewables was to begin construction of the 48-turbine facility – between Dunmore and the Cypress Hills – this spring, but hasn’t been able to order its preferred turbine . . . Complete story »
Turbine topples, as does company’s relationship with college
The designer of an experimental wind turbine located near Medicine Hat College says an operational decision to lock them from spinning led to one shearing off in high wind on Sunday night. As well, the working relationship between the college and company appears to have ended. One of the distinctive blue, helical turbines laid on its side on Monday morning, separated from its base, while another was being girded by a forklift. Joel Goldblatt, head of Bluenergy SolarWind, told the . . . Complete story »
Suncor suspends its wind project in Forty Mile due to COVID
Suncor’s Forty Mile Wind Power Project has suspended construction for the remainder of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Suncor released a revised 2020 corporate guidance for capital operating costs and production outlook on March 23, reflecting significant declines in crude oil prices and uncertainty surrounding the economic impact of COVID-19,” said Todd Andersen on behalf of Forty Mile Granlea Wind Limited Partnership. “As a part of the company’s revised capital expense budget, Suncor decided to suspend construction on phase . . . Complete story »
Looks like planned Whitla Wind Farm expansion will go ahead in 2021
Capital Power has ordered key equipment for its planned Whitla Wind Farm expansion – a key indication that work set to take place in 2021 near Bow Island will move ahead. The Edmonton-based company stated in its first-quarter financial report, released Monday, that it was performing well, though it expects power demand and therefore prices to be lower than were forecast in 2020. In a note on subsequent events, the company signed a 10-year contract extension with wind turbine maker . . . Complete story »
Suncor delays wind project as part of major scale-back of capital spending
A major wind power project near Bow Island could be delayed up to two years, Suncor announced as it issued revised guidance to investors on Monday. The major oilsands and energy producer slashed its forecast outlook in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic response and staggering low world oil prices touched off by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. “The simultaneous supply and demand shocks are having a significant impact on the global oil industry,” said Mark Little, . . . Complete story »
Proposed wind farm prompts concern from residents of Lomond, Alberta
A proposed 24,000-acre wind farm near Lomond, Alta., has some area residents worried about the future of their farmland. “I am just a concerned citizen from Lomond, [but] there are a group of us,” said Ron Magnusen, whose family has been farming in the area for at least 100 years. Magnusen said ABO Wind, the company in charge of the Buffalo Plains Wind Farm project, is compensating several landowners, including the Armada Hutterite Colony, to install towering wind turbines on . . . Complete story »
Wind farm generating anger, not power, in Lomond
A proposed new wind farm around Lomond is generating a lot of opposition from area residents. The plan would see 87, 183 metre high turbines placed in the area on five separate properties. To put it in perspective, 183 metres is 600 feet high, or 26 feet shorter than the Calgary Tower, which clocks in at 191 metres or 626 feet. The wind farm will be located on five privately owned pieces of land in the area, including a nearby . . . Complete story »
County council approves placement of electrical collection lines in right of way for proposed wind farm project
Justin Helland, one of the local residents who spoke against the project, expressed frustration at having to limit his comments to the application before council. At the beginning of the discussion, Reeve Jason Schneider had asked those sitting in the council chambers public gallery to limit their comments to the application, as five members of council who heard the application sit on the County’s Municipal Planning Commission, which will hear ABO’s application on the wind farm itself, and another council sits on a board that would hear any appeal of the MPC’s decision. Discussions on the wind farm itself could disqualify councillors from being involved in those decisions, Schneider warned. “I think everyone can agreed that the powerline is used to serve the project,” said Helland. “That’s a fact. So I don’t think it’s out of place to talk about the effects of the project.” The Lomond-area community is willing to fight “anything that enables the proposed wind farm,” he said. “And this powerline does that,” said Helland. Complete story »
