Wind - Related Articles
BARRINGTON BACKWOODS EYED FOR WIND ENERGY PROJECT
A Nova Scotia grown wind energy development company is exploring the potential in the backwoods of Barrington. “This is still very much preliminary,” said Andrew Arbuckle, project engineer for Eon WindElectric, in a presentation to Barrington Municipal Council on March 26. “This is by no means a sure project,” he said. The company, which is under the umbrella of Watts Wind Energy, has been investigating potential sites for a wind energy project that would consist of two turbines. Arbuckle said the company has spoke with Nova Scotia Power and the power generated from two turbines would be the maximum that could be accommodated at the Barrington substation. “The area has significant wind potential to host two turbines,” said Arbuckle. Locations that have been scouted for the proposed wind power project are near Bear Point Pond between Atwood's Brook and the Wireless Station Road. Arbuckle said the towers would be approximately 25 metres high (80 feet), with the circumference of the blades measuring approximately 40 meters (120 feet).
The company is pursuing the project under the provincial Department of Energy’s Community Feed-In Tariff (COMFIT) program, which allows for the development of locally-based renewable electricity projects that must be community-owned and connected at the distribution level. Watts Wind Energy is currently in the process of developing the application, said Arbuckle, and if it is successful, the project will move on to the next stage, which will involve extensive community consultation as well as the opportunity for investment. The company has to have a minimum of 25 community investors for the project to proceed, said Arbuckle, who estimated the project would cost $6 to $8 million. Ironically, amendments to the Municipal Planning Strategy and Land Use By-Law to accommodate various scales of wind turbine generators came into effect on March 26, the same day as Arbuckle’s presentation.
http://www.thecoastguard.ca/News/2012-04-03/article-2945999/Barrington-backwoods-eyed-for-wind-energy-project/1
NOVA SCOTIA WIND ENERGY FIRMS JOIN FORCES
The winds of change have blown through two Nova Scotia wind project developers. In a made-in-Canada deal, renewable energy specialists Natural Forces Technologies Inc. of Dartmouth acquired the business and assets of Wind Prospect Inc. of Halifax. The acquisition is in line with the Dartmouth firms mandate to bring renewable energy to the Maritimes through partnerships with local and international firms. Wind Prospect, the Canadian arm of United Kingdom-based Wind Prospect Group, set up its offices in Halifax and Vancouver in 2006. The Kent Hills 150-megawatt wind farm, located south of Moncton, N.B., is Natural Forces Technologies’ primary asset. The firm has a total of 200 megawatts of wind energy sites in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, while Wind Prospect Inc.’s development assets in Nova Scotia are around 60 megawatts. Wind Prospect also has five sites under development in British Columbia totalling more than 500 megawatts. The expertise both parties bring to the table sets the stage for a strong partnership, Austen Hughes, a Wind Prospect Inc. director, said Wednesday. “It’s a great opportunity,” Hughes said. “The skill sets that Wind Prospect and Natural Forces bring will truly complement one another and were all looking forward to success,” Hughes said. The mandate of the Nova Scotia Energy Policy, which requires the province to produce 25 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015 and 40 per cent by 2020, puts the new entity in an ideal position to move forward on its projects in B.C. and move ahead on its nine community-based feed-in tariff applications and the development of the 4.6-megawatt Fairmont Wind Farm that is currently under construction near Antigonish. “As a combined unit I would certainly expect to see more projects evolving as we move forward,” Hughes said. Wind Prospect Inc. will continue to operate its business and assets under its current moniker and Barrington Street location. The company will likely adopt the Natural Forces Technology name in coming years, Hughes said.
The financial details of the acquisition were not available.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/81037-nova-scotia-wind-energy-firms-join-forces
TURBINE PLAN CAUSES FLAP IN BAYSWATER
Bayswater residents are upset they weren’t better informed about plans for construction of a wind turbine, a local resident says. Watts Wind Energy has plans to construct a wind turbine between the Lunenburg County village and Blandford by the end of 2013. It advertised its second community meeting through a local newsletter that came out late last week.
"They’re just trying to slip something past us," Bayswater resident Judy Duffy said Tuesday.
The newsletter was five pages stapled together and there was no notice in the local paper, she said. And the newsletter was only delivered to people with mailboxes and most seasonal residents don’t have them. When Duffy found out about the turbine from a neighbour last week, she was "totally shocked." She is concerned about potential noise pollution and vibration from turbine blades. Paul Pynn, vice-president of Watts Wind, said the turbine will be constructed 800 metres from the nearest home. Duffy lives about twice that distance from the construction site.
The proposed plan is still in the planning stage, Pynn said. It will have to be approved by Nova Scotia Power and pass an environmental assessment. The second information session regarding the proposed turbine will be held today at the Blandford Community Center at 7 p.m.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/80796-turbine-plan-causes-flap-bayswater
Shear Wind Gets N.S. Approval
A proposal to expand the province’s largest wind farm has cleared a regulatory hurdle. Shear Wind Inc. of Bedford has received environmental approval to enter Phase 2 of the Glen Dhu wind farm in Pictou County, bringing the second site a major step closer to construction. “We’re quite pleased with this approval,” Shear Wind’s president and CEO, Mike Magnus, said in an interview Friday. The province is expected to issue a request for proposals in April to acquire more renewable electricity from independent power producers. Magnus said having an environmental approval completed is a significant milestone for a wind project. “It’s an important step for us,” he said. “Strategically, we always want to have all our sites ready for expansion for when a (request for proposals) is issued.”
The next major step for the Shear Wind project is a signed power purchase agreement, Magnus said, adding that construction would begin only when a power deal was in hand. Environment Minister Sterling Belliveau tacked on a number of conditions to the environmental approval to reduce the impact on wildlife, protect ground and surface water and reduce noise and visual pollution. Magnus said the conditions and various site restrictions are not “dramatically insurmountable” and Shear Wind is still “bullish” on the potential of the second Glen Dhu site and its other projects across the province. Glen Dhu, the largest wind farm in Nova Scotia, has been in operation since last March. The 62-megawatt Phase 1 has been producing more power than expected, and the proposed expansion could triple production. Cape Breton wind farms have been hobbled by traffic jams on the power grid coming out of the Strait of Canso, but transmission lines with extra space transect the Glen Dhu site. Shear Wind is also proposing a 50-megawatt wind project in the Canaan Mountains area in Cumberland County. Shear Wind owns 51 per cent of the Glen Dhu wind farm, and Inveravante Inversiones Universales, S.L., through Genera Avante Holdings Canada Inc., has 49 per cent.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/74445-shear-wind-gets-ns-approval
Scotian Windfields Has Its Say
Pretty near every seat in the house was filled Feb. 22 when concerned citizens gathered to hear presentations on wind energy projects in county council chambers during the Municipality of Kings’ committee of the whole agenda. Scotian WindFields chief operating officer Daniel Roscoe was first to present and answer councillor questions. He said there is some confusion and uncertainty about proposed wind energy projects in Kings County. “I hope this is the start of a process to better engage the community,” Roscoe said. The province has committed to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 10 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. Roscoe said coal-fired electrical generation is the main contributor. The cost of fossil fuels is volatile, beyond our control and going up. Nova Scotia imports more than 90 per cent of its energy, so money is leaving the province to buy fossil fuels. “To make sure money stays in Nova Scotia, we have to ensure ownership of the projects is local,” Roscoe said.
The wind energy projects Scotian WindFields has proposed for Kings County are under the provincial Community Feed-in Tariffs (COMFIT) program. Roscoe said the feed-in tariff is a tool used around the world to encourage renewable energy development. Scotian WindFields started in concept in Windsor in 1999. Roscoe said eight Community Economic Development Investment Fund groups were established across the province, including Glooscap WindField in Kings. The group pooled its money to form Scotian WindFields Inc. There are currently 15 people employed throughout the province to help develop projects. Roscoe said the Kings County projects are in the preliminary stage and there wouldn’t be any turbines installed until 2013 at the earliest. Because of 14 Wing Greenwood’s radar station, no wind turbines can be installed within a 25 nautical mile radius, limiting potential wind energy development to the South Mountain and Blomidon ridge.
There has been a metering tower in White Rock for about four years, before the county had any policy on large-scale wind turbines. There is a metering tower on Peck Meadow Road for the proposed Greenfield project. A permit application is in process with the municipality. There is a third project proposed for the Greenfield area with no metering tower currently associated with it. There are a number of variables that make a site suitable, Roscoe said. Large-scale wind turbines cannot t be located in the middle of nowhere, he added, because projects become more expensive the further away from three-phase power they are located. Roscoe said there have been independent reviews in other areas that found the health effects of wind turbines “negligible.” This statement was met with a collective groan from the gallery. “I hope this is the start of a process to better engage the community." - Scotian WindFields chief operating officer Daniel Roscoe “Don’t take my word for it, read the reports,” he said.
In response to a question from Coun. Eric Smith about what would happen if there were ever a fire in a turbine, Roscoe said it would not require an intervention and it would burn itself out. In response to a question from Coun. Dick Killam about what would happen to the turbines if the company went bankrupt, Roscoe said he was not certain he had an answer.. He said another company would probably be willing to take on the turbine if that happened, but there are no guarantees. Roscoe added the company would return the land back to the way they found it if their lease with the landowner were to end. He agreed to meet downstairs with the concerned residents following the presentations to answer questions. Roscoe said Scotian WindFields is committed to meeting with communities on a local level on a more thorough basis and suggested holding a public forum at Acadia University to have a better discussion on wind energy.
Did you know?
- As a requirement of the COMFIT program, all electricity generated must be consumed locally. Scotian WindFields chief operating officer Daniel Roscoe said it’s more efficient to consume power where you’re producing it.
- Roscoe said all their projects are developed with a community dividend, meaning one per cent of all proceeds from a turbine stay in the host community, with the community getting to decide how the money is spent. This would amount to approximately $8,000 to $9,000 per turbine per year.
- Scotian WindFields is a for-profit company that doesn’t receive provincial or federal subsidies. CEDIF investors get a tax incentive and dividends and the landowner or leaseholder makes money.
- The proposed Peck Meadow Road project in Greenfield would have an overall cost of about $5 million. Although no turbine has been ordered, the overall height of the tower and blade would probably be between 120 and 150 metres.
- Roscoe said tax revenue from such a turbine wouldn’t be significant, about $6,000 per megawatt generated, split between the municipality and province.
- COMFIT program contracts are for 20 years, about the design life of a utility scale wind turbine. Contracts are for 13 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced, with the price fixed for 15 years. In Europe, 20 or 30 year old turbines are being upgraded.
http://www.kingscountynews.ca/News/2012-03-02/article-2914113/Scotian-WindFields-has-its-say/1
Nova Scotia warned of wind power glut
Nova Scotia's consumer advocates say there could soon be too much wind power in the province, which may lead to higher power rates.
The warning comes as a bidding war gets underway to supply more wind power to meet renewable energy targets. The provincial government says 25 per cent of electricity must come from these sources by 2015.
Existing wind farms and new players are responding to a request for proposals to supply an extra 300 gigawatt hours to the provincial grid.
John Merrick and Bill Mahody say the Department of Energy already has all of the projects it needs to meet its target.
This RFP "would unnecessarily increase annual ratepayer bills by millions of dollars, by acquiring far too much renewable energy," the two consumer advocates wrote in a submission to the renewable energy administrator, who is overseeing the process.
They say the province will meet its renewable energy target through wind farms and a 60 megawatt biomass project now underway.
They question whether it's fair for consumers to pay a premium price for green projects that could be sanctioned at a later date, once it's known whether a paper mill will re-emerge to replace the shuttered NewPage Port Hawkesbury facility.
The consumer advocates estimate ratepayers could be on the hook for an unnecessary $50 million in three years, if the province doesn't reduce the amount of wind power it's seeking through the current RFP.
They say the province will need no more than 80 gigawatt hours of new renewable energy, and only if a mill reopens in Cape Breton.
Merrick and Mahody say the call for more wind power stems from a misreading of the province's Electricity Act and renewable energy regulations.
Province sticks with numbers
Murray Coolican, deputy minister of energy, won't comment on that. However, he said the province is sticking with its numbers in the RFP.
"This is a good time. The interest rates are low and the prices seem to be low. And once you've locked in wind you have a stable price over at least 20 years," Coolican told CBC News.
He said the province waited too long to move away from coal energy.
The RFP competition ends May 4.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/02/08/ns-wind-power-consumer.html
Antigonish County wind farm looks for investors
An $11-million proposed wind project in Antigonish County is on the hunt for investors.
Wind4All is a community economic development corporation sponsored and created exclusively by Wind Prospect Inc. as a funding mechanism for the Fairmont wind project six kilometres north of Antigonish.
The call for local investors aims to raise $3.3 million — money that is earmarked for continued project development, said Wind Prospect director Austen Hughes.
“This is a relatively small project that has great interest from the local community,” Hughes said from his Halifax office Monday.
“We felt the traditional sources of funding for wind projects wouldn’t be as interested in the smaller projects like this ... so if the investments come from Nova Scotians, it makes it, overall, a much better fit.”
Eligible investors can contribute a minimum of $5,000 and a maximum of $50,000 to the Wind4All Community Economic Development Investment Fund. If the maximum capital is raised — about $3.3 million of the $11 million project — Wind4All will own up to 49 per cent of the Fairmont project and Wind Prospect will own the balance of the 20-year project. Investors will be eligible to tap into the 35 per cent non-refundable provincial equity tax credit.
The project will be decommissioned in 20 years, the natural life of the turbines and the length of current land leases and power purchase agreements, Hughes said, adding that the rate of return is “anticipated” to be 13 per cent, seven per cent of which can be attributed to the provincial tax credit.
“The design life of the turbines is typically about 20 to 23 years. There is zero residual value at year 20. Maybe we can continue generating afterwards, but there are too many uncertainties to guarantee anything beyond 20 years.”
The Fairmont wind project will see two turbines constructed that will generate four to 4.6 megawatts, or enough to provide electricity for about 1,500 homes.
Wind Prospect and Nova Scotia Power signed a 20-year power purchase agreement in 2009, while county council approved the rezoning of the land last August and the project received a conditional environmental stamp of approval in September.
The six or so conditions that remain, including the need for an avian monitoring program and an environmental plan, have been addressed; the environmental approval is just a matter of paperwork, Hughes said.
He is hopeful the turbines will be generating power by September.
Established in 2006 and with offices in Halifax and Vancouver, Wind Prospect is the Canadian arm of the Wind Prospect Group,a global renewable energy business that has developed more than 2,000 megawatts of wind energy projects around the world and constructed more than 100 wind farms.
A series of investment information seminars are underway throughout Nova Scotia before the Feb. 29 investment deadline. One of the seminars takes place tonight in Halifax at 7 p.m. at Casino Nova Scotia and again Wednesday evening at the Ramada Plaza in Dartmouth.
More information on the project and upcoming seminars is available online at Wind4All.ca.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/59838-antigonish-county-wind-farm-looks-investors
WINDSOR COMPANY PLANS TO EXTRACT RARE-EARTH ELEMENTS
Rare Earth Mineral Sands Inc. of Windsor raised $1.3 million in a private placement and is ramping up its plan to extract light rare earth elements from the red mud of Cobequid Bay and the Shubenacadie River.
“Mother Nature has processed the material. We just have to separate it into its component parts,” president and chief executive officer James White said in an interview.
The privately held company initially said it was seeking to raise about $2.5 million, but it considers the private placement a success and is ready to proceed with a major drilling program and mineralogy studies by an Australian laboratory.
Details on public offering will be announced in the coming months.
Some pre-feasibility work on a separation and drying plant, design work on dredging equipment and a final environmental assessment will be part of the work to be completed this year in advance of beginning production in 2013, said White.
Rare earth minerals are used in everything from cellphones to wind turbines and they are in high demand all over the world, he said.
“We have some engineering challenges to contend with due to the powerful tidal action of the Bay of Fundy tides that flow aggressively in the Shubenacadie River,” he said.
Rare Earth Mineral Sands wants to develop a major mineral sand project on about 593 adjoining claims covering 9,488 hectares in Cobequid Bay and the Shubenacadie River areas.
Initial tests found significant quantities of cerium, lanthanum and neodymium in monazite sand in the exploration area.
White said trillions of dollars worth of gross domestic product in the United States and Canada depends of the use of light rare earth minerals.
However, China produces virtually all rare earth elements and last week announced more reductions of export quotas for 2012.
Preliminary results also confirmed the presence of commercial quantities of titanium, iron ore and zircon and discussions with major buyers of these minerals are underway, White said.
When production proceeds in 2013, the plan is to locate a “separation dry plant” onshore. Mud will be dredged up into a floating processing plant and about 95 per cent of the rare material will be immediately returned to the dredging site after desired minerals are extracted.
Some uncertainty with light rare earth elements prices for 2012 is predicted in the latest edition of Forbes. The finance publication reported in its 2012 outlook that the price of neodymium, for example, is beginning the year at $270 per kilogram, about half its 2011 peak.
The publication predicted some price stabilization on prices for rare earth minerals later in the year.
Neodymium is used in magnets and is one of the rare earth minerals found is significant quantities in Cobequid Bay and the Shubenacadie River region.
ACOA DISHED OUT $14M IN LAST QUARTER
Agency Was the Kindest to Innovative Companies
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency may be taking it on the nose lately in Ottawa for its lack of financial disclosure.
But the list of grants, awards and other contributions that the controversial Crown corporation has handed out during the final three months of 2011 still makes for interesting reading.
According to federal government figures, the agency gave more than $14 million to Nova Scotia enterprises during the last quarter of the year.
What’s more, the agency’s total largesse in the province could be double that if the $7.47 million in funding for the recent Halifax International Security Forum and the $8.5 million that went to Springboard Atlantic Inc., which helps Atlantic universities commercialize their technology research, are included.
The biggest single Nova Scotia recipient of agency support during the quarter was Immunovaccine Technologies Inc. The Halifax-headquartered clinical-stage company received $2.94 million in funding to continue developing cancer and infectious disease vaccines to be delivered in its patented DepoVax system.
Region-wide, only Springboard, as well as Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrews, N.B., which received $3 million, got more from the agency.
Within Nova Scotia, the agency was the kindest to innovative companies.
Next after Immunovaccine was Dartmouth’s Seaforth Energy Inc. It received $1.91 million in funding to continue building wind turbines.
The agency also opened up its coffers to other cutting-edge Nova Scotia firms.
Copol International Ltd. of North Sydney received $500,000 to buy new equipment to develop innovative packaging products.
Ascenta Health Ltd. of Dartmouth, which uses fish oils to make health products, also received $500,000 to help it make inroads in the United States market.
Acadian Seaplants Ltd., which uses seaweed to make value-added products that it exports around the world, received $490,000 to expand its plant in Bear River.
DSME Trenton Ltd., which makes wind turbines in Trenton, received $430,650 to “create an internal blade training facility and hire a blade manufacturing specialist.”
CarbonCure Technologies Inc. of Halifax, which is working on a product that captures carbon in concrete blocks, received $350,000 in two separate grants to hire a marketing manager and implement a marketing plan.
Halifax’s Novawise Inc. received $250,000 in funding to develop and commercialize software for the pharmaceutical sales industry and another $50,000 to hire some marketing help.
Dartmouth’s Cherubini Metal Works Ltd., which uses computer-controlled fabrication equipment to produce bridges, structural steel, pressure vessels and transmission towers, received $320,000 to buy a new plasma cutting table and compressor.
Not all of the Nova Scotia companies that received agency support look and sound like the enterprises of tomorrow.
Scotian Gold Co-operative Ltd., the Annapolis Valley fruit growers co-op, received $500,000 to buy new storage equipment.
Then there’s Ven-Rez Products Ltd. of Shelburne, which makes school, library and institutional furniture. The Shaw Group of Companies subsidiary received $376,000 to expand its manufacturing facility and buy new equipment.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/47288-acoa-dished-out-14m-last-quarter
WIND TOWER PLANT SEES BUSINESS GROW IN 2011
TRENTON – A local company that began manufacturing wind towers this past year has had some growing pains in 2011, said its assistant director of communication relations.
Scott Covey of DSTN Trenton said the Trenton plant faced some difficulties finding employees specifically trained in the wind industry, pursuing orders throughout Canada and the northeastern states and constantly working to improve its facility.
However, on the positive side, he said the company has grown from 30 employees in January to its peak of 200 employees, the vast majority of whom were from Pictou County. He said other employees are from throughout Nova Scotia and a small minority came from the United States, Korea, China, Taiwan as well as other countries. He said a large number of the workforce are former employees of the TrentonWorks facility.
“I would like to thank the families of all our DSTN employees because this year has not been easy on anyone. We have had workers who have put in very long hours which has left little time to spend with their spouses and children and we want them to know that we really appreciate what they (the families) have gone through as well,” he said.
DSTN was successful in acquiring two contracts in 2011 for a total of 20 wind towers. The first contract was for a project in Cape North, P.E.I., at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada.
Covey said the project began in late July and finished delivery to P.E.I. in mid-November. The towers were about 80 metres in height and each were built in three sections, which were then erected on site.
DSTN’s second order was for development in Nova Scotia. Fifteen towers, at a height of 90 metres each, were trucked to Amherst in four sections per tower. These towers were subcontracted to DSTN through the turbine manufacturer, Suzlon, which was hired by Sprott Power Corp. This project began in July and tower delivery is about 75 per cent complete, he said.
In addition to the wind towers, DSTN employees also started to prepare the plant for the production of wind turbine blades.
“We currently have four local employees who have been travelling to Halifax on a weekly basis to learn this process,” Covey said. “Their training will continue into the new year, at which point we are expecting to received the mould for our first set of blades to be produced.”
He said the DSTN sales team has been working supplying to a variety of different companies while production staff are finishing off the current orders.
“Everyone is optimistic about 2012,” he said.
He said the sales staff are going to be focusing on wind energy development here in Nova Scotia where 100 megawatts of new energy will be awarded for Community Feed in Tariffs and a further 100MW will be awarded to different independent power producers throughout the year. He added there was suppose to be 100 MW of power developed by Nova Scotia Power, but that has been delayed for the time being, and they are eager to watch as that progresses in the future.
“In this past year, our skilled workers have been working tirelessly to produce the high quality project that our customers are happy to receive,” Covey said. “There is a combination of two strong cultures working effectively together here at DSTN, which assists us in proving to the industry that we are a strong competitor.”
Wind projects await provincial OK
Energy department says some approvals will come before year’s end
Green energy developers are hoping Santa brings them provincial approval for some of their proposed community-based projects.
Dan Roscoe, chief operating officer of Scotian WindFields Inc., said Wednesday developers were expecting the Energy Department to begin approving the small-scale developments by the end of November.
“We’re certainly behind schedule,” Roscoe said in an interview.
The Dartmouth-based company has submitted 19 wind projects in various parts of Nova Scotia on behalf of several community economic development groups.
Roscoe said he understands the province’s community feed-in tariff program is new, but developers are running out of time to get projects completed next year.
“They have a lot of applications, probably more than anything.”
The province expects about 100 megawatts of electricity will be produced at the community level through the program.
Almost 60 projects, totalling 244 megawatts, have been filed with the department.
The majority of ventures involve community economic developments agencies, although universities, municipalities and non-profits groups have also applied.
Most projects are for 50-kilowatt wind turbines, but the proposals also include five in-stream tidal projects and two biomass plants.
An Energy Department spokeswoman said Wednesday the plan was to start announcing projects in late November or early December.
“We don’t think we’re going to be too far off that mark,” Jackie Van Amburg said.
She couldn’t say when the first projects will be approved but said it will likely be before the end of the year.
“There are just a few little administrative things that need to be worked out. Ultimately, it will be very soon.”
Dana Morin, president of Fundy Tidal, said developers are to receive approvals so they can get financing in place for projects.
His Westport-based company is planning to offer shares through a Community Economic Development Investment Fund, as are most other developers.
“Normally, CEDIFs are done before tax season ends, so there is some backup here from a financing standpoint,” Morin said.
“It presents some challenges, that the investment will be raised later than we had hoped.”
Fundy Tidal has proposed the five small-scale tidal projects, including three in Digby County and two in Cape Breton.
Morin said he is hoping to start receiving word on his projects in early January.
(jalberstat@herald.ca)
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/40395-wind-projects-await-provincial-ok
Small Canadian island province's big plans for wind-energy storage
Tower sections have begun arriving at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada (WEICan) test field for a C$25m ($24m) pilot project that aims to drive development of grid-connected wind-energy storage for northern regions.
Five DeWind D9.2 turbines were ordered in the summer for the 10MW demonstration installation at North Cape, on the northern tip of Prince Edward Island. WEICan is in final deliberations as to what type of storage technology to trial.
“With the growth of ‘big wind’, our dialogue with industry, government and various policymakers led us to see a wind-energy research and development [R&D] park as having some appeal,” says WEICan chief executive Scott Harper.
“And from this, and further discussions with utility systems operators, it became clear that ¬inte¬gration of wind as an intermittent resource would be about one main thing in the future — storage.”
The Wind Energy Research and Development Park and Storage System for Innovation in Grid Integration project is backed roughly 50:50 by a five-year grant from the federal Clean Energy Fund and a loan from the province that is to be repaid from the sale of electricity produced once it is up and running.
The idea for the pilot grew out of the province’s success early in the previous decade in building a portfolio of small wind farms with a total installed capacity of more than 160MW that feed 20% of Prince Edward Island’s appetite for electricity.
With peak load in Canada’s smallest province of just 220MW in winter — “a big pulp and paper mill uses the same as Prince Edward Island” — and plans to develop 500MW of wind power by 2013 at an estimated cost of C$1bn, storage “stood out as the missing piece” in its emerging renewable-energy puzzle, according to Harper.
“What you have is a whack of wind on a small grid. The cost-competitiveness and economics of utilising storage is not well understood or appreciated. What happens when wind power is stored for milliseconds, minutes, hours or days, and how much power is lost in the process?
“[This project] is designed to work through many of the perceived kinks in a wind-energy storage model and see if it can be made to work.”
The wind farm will be operated with a utility-sized battery-based storage system and related controls, designed to “take advantage of our locale to investigate the economic and technical viability of using energy-storage technology with wind-power plants in a Canadian application”.
“From playing with the numbers at the outset, we felt a set-up with a storage system in the 1MW size would make it relevant for auxiliary services,” Harper adds.
While Canada is witnessing a steady growth in wind turbine component manufacturing, this expansion has little resonance with Prince Edward Island because of its limited market.
But the WEICan pilot, being more about “technology, integration and know-how”, is felt to tie into an area of business where “there is some traction to build up a capacity that could be taken to the greater market”, according to Harper.
DeWind, a subsidiary of South Korea’s giant Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), plans to use the project as a flagship installation for its new 2MW D9.2 turbine. The D9.2 is said to be “well-suited for the challenges” of the wind-swept test site, where gusts blow across the Gulf of St Lawrence at average speeds higher than eight metres per second.
Towers will be delivered by ¬another DSME company, DSTN, a joint venture with the province of Nova Scotia.
Four of the turbines are being erected along a 1.5km stretch of coast close to WEICan, with the fifth slightly inland, near a 69kV transmission line owned by local utility Maritime Energy. Output will travel along a 13.8kV collector line to join the grid at a substation near Tignish, where the storage installation will be built.
“Part of the evaluation here will be how the storage fits in with the step-up: with the voltages that we will have going in and out, how much more storage will a storage system represent when the utility has the ability to drop down voltage and put it back up.”
High-capacity, utility-scale storage, probably lithium-ion or sodium-sulphur batteries, is in pole position for the WEICan pilot because they are well matched to “time-shifting” solutions that charge up overnight and flow back onto the grid during the day to smooth supply in periods of peak demand.
“For this we need a technology that is fairly efficient in terms of conversion, so that puts batteries at a distinct advantage,” says Harper. “We have been talking to our transmission system operator, and we are working together to determine where exactly is the return in energy storage, with what technologies, and where could we have an impact on the province and the Maritime region.”
A containerised “cord-in, cord-out” storage system will be looked at as a means of buffering the turbines’ power demands during production outages.
“We have also talked to plenty of wind turbine operators who would like to see how machines would go through ice storms and the like, with energy storage as back-up, to really see what the economics would look like.”
Commissioning of the turbines is due to be completed this month, with the selected storage system wired in next spring and switched on by June.
Harper predicts that the North American storage sector is about to undergo a rapid expansion.
“Go to [an ¬energy-storage] conference today and it looks like the wind-power sector did in 2000: a room full of engineers discussing technical issues, a few guys in suits doing ‘due diligence’ — and a few systems integrators now, which is a breath of fresh air, because they have done work for the utilities and they know how they think about technology risk profiles, what they need.”
He believes the wind industry will soon come to realise the market value of energy storage. “Right now, there are too many times when an operator is producing at a level where, without storage, they are left with no choice but to start dumping wind overnight.”
Darius Snieckus, Bristol
http://www.rechargenews.com/business_area/innovation/article292337.ece
Canada enjoying 'banner year' for wind, says CanWEA
Wind installations in Canada this year will total 1.4GW, more than double 690MW in 2010, raising nationwide generating capacity to more than 5.4GW, according to a new projection by the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA).
The trade group estimates that developers will spend almost C$3.5bn ($3.57bn) to install turbines this year. "2011 has been a banner year for new wind energy development in Canada, which means cleaner air, new jobs and local investments for the communities that host wind energy projects," says CanWEA President Robert Hornung.
Canada at the end of this year will rank ninth globally in terms of total installed capacity, enough wind energy to power more than 1.5 million Canadian homes, according to CanWEA.
"Canada, and in particular Ontario, is emerging as a very competitive destination for wind energy investment globally,” says Hornung, saying that more than 500MW will be installed there. “Maintaining that position will require continued commitments to aggressive targets for wind energy development and a stable policy framework.”
He did not mention Ontario’s abrupt decision in February to impose a moratorium on offshore wind development in the Great Lakes. The province said it needed to carry out more scientific research with the US on the environmental effects of placing turbines in fresh water.
In 2011, new wind energy projects were built and commissioned in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Alberta also expects to have a project commissioned by the end of the year. CanWEA says that more than 6,000 MW of wind energy projects are already contracted to be built over the next five years.
Richard A. Kessler
http://www.rechargenews.com/energy/wind/article292715.ece
County issues tender for design of small wind farm
The Municipality of Pictou County is interested in wind farms.
Brian Cullen, CAO for the county, said a tender has been issued for submissions from qualified professionals to design, build and install a wind-energy project within Pictou County.
He said the county looked at two concepts, big wind and little wind, but in the end decided to go with the smaller type farm. A big wind farm with larger wind turbines would create larger revenues, but the costs of constructing such a wind farm is out of the county’s grasp.
The county is interested in a small wind farm which will still create “comfortable returns,” he said. One small wind turbine is estimated to cost between $300,000 and $350,000 and there could be as many as three wind turbines on one site.
Cullen said the municipality has recently registered for a comFit program through the Nova Scotia Department of Energy. If the comfit program approves its application, it plans on constructing three wind turbines on woodland in the Riverton area. The comFIT program, by guaranteeing a set rate at which electricity can be sold back to Nova Scotia Power, will allow the municipality to ensure a secure investment in renewable energy.
Cullen said net proceeds from the project’s return cannot be used for general revenue, such as paying electricity bills, but it can be invested or used for sustainable projects.
He said county councillors first became interested in wind power in hopes that it would offset some of the municipality’s large power bill costs, but will continue on with the project even though this can’t be done.
Tenders for the wind farm project will close Dec. 16.
Project Making Significant Progress
A multi-million-dollar wind project outside Amherst could be generating power as early as next March.
"The project is progressing pretty good, most of the foundations have been poured and the blades have arrived," Sprott Power CEO Jeff Jenner said. "You should see the first towers beginning to arrive in 30 days and after that the remaining towers should arrive in 30-60 days."
Jenner said the towers are presently under construction at the DSTN facilty in Trenton. He said they have to go through a welding and painting process before they will be shipped by truck to the site on the marsh near Amherst.
The project's 36 blades, each 48.5 metres in length, began arriving in late September from Halifax, where they were unloaded from ships that transported them from the Suzlon manufacturing facility in Spain.
The turbines themselves are sitting in Halifax ready for transportation, but Jenner said they wouldn't be moved to the site for another month or so.
The $61-million project, announced earlier this year by Ontario-based Sprott Power, will generate 31.5 megawatts, enough electricity to power 10,000 homes.
http://www.sackvilletribunepost.com/News/2011-11-02/article-2794510/Wind-project-making-significant-progress/1
Small Turbines Generate Huge Sales Potential
Eighty years ago, the landscape of Western Canada was dotted with windmills, primitive devices mainly used to pump water out of the ground.
If Darryl Jessie gets his way, that vista would be recreated in the coming years, with small power-generating wind turbines popping up on just about every farm.
Mr. Jessie’s company, Raum Energy Inc., is one the many innovative firms that make up Canada’s “small wind” sector – companies that make turbines that are minuscule compared to the towering giants going up in huge wind farms around the world.
While a large turbine can generate as much as 7 megawatts of electricity – enough for up to 5,000 homes – the smaller windmills put out only a tiny fraction of that amount, often just sufficient to partly power a single household or business.
While the output is relatively small, the market potential is huge. Many companies are finding success selling into regions where power is more expensive, or to parts of developing countries where there may be no power grid at all. At the same time, it’s a field where Canada leads, thanks to the country’s strong engineering skills and the entrepreneurial drive of many small operators.
Mr. Jessie’s company, based in Saskatoon, makes among the smallest turbines, with two models generating 1.5 and 3.5 kilowatts of power. Highly efficient, these models take little maintenance and can be erected using just a tractor or truck to pull the tower into place. Once installed, they supplement what comes from the electricity grid, and when the wind power isn’t needed by the farmer or business owner, it can be sold back to the utility through the grid.
“There are 40,000 family farms in Saskatchewan,” and no reason each of them cannot have a windmill, Mr. Jessie said. Distributing power generation among millions of different sites in North America could help solve the continent’s power needs while cleaning up the environment, he said. “The market potential is massive.”
While Canada is a leader in the small-wind business, most of the turbines the industry makes is currently exported. According to figures compiled last year by the Canadian Wind Energy Association, Canadian companies now represent more than half of the world’s manufacturers of turbines in the 30 to 100 kilowatt range. But about 87 per cent of the sales of companies making small turbines is exported.
The main reason for that, Mr. Jessie said, is that power rates are still so low in Canada that in most cases small wind turbines can’t compete with the cheap power generated by utilities. Incentive programs in Ontario and Nova Scotia are helping, but small turbines won’t likely go mainstream in Canada until power rates rise sharply – something Mr. Jessie expects to happen over the next decade.
The small-scale wind market is ripe for innovation by entrepreneurs, said David Wood, a professor at the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary who specializes in renewable energy. There isn’t nearly as much innovation going on with large turbines, he said, because they now represent a mature technology that has settled on a single design. “Virtually all large wind turbines are three-bladed, upwind, horizontal axis machines,” he said.
The key areas where technical progress is being made on small turbines is on blade construction and the design of the electrical controls which convert generated power to usable current, Prof. Wood said. But there needs to be more advances in these areas to make small turbines competitive with other sources of electricity – including solar power, where costs are falling dramatically. If this is not done, the small turbine sector could be confined to niche markets.
Canadian companies have, indeed, come up with a number of novel approaches in the design of wind turbines.
Toronto’s WhalePower Corp. has created a turbine blade that has a series of bumps along the leading edge of the blade, like those on a whale’s fin, which creates greater lift and generates less drag.
Vbine Energy of Moosomin, Sask., sells a quiet, efficient vertical axis turbine, originally designed to attach to chimneys, which can be mounted on urban buildings or telecommunications towers.
Toronto’s Wind Simplicity Inc. sells a very quiet small turbine with peanut-shaped blades it calls Windancer, which is ideal for low-wind applications closer to the ground.
One of Canada’s most successful small-wind companies has even carved out its niche with relatively old technology. Jonathan Barry, president of Seaforth Energy Inc. in Dartmouth, N.S., said his company’s AOC 15/50 turbine, developed in the early 1990s, is successful because it is proven technology. It has been installed all around the world, and its performance and characteristics are well known.
“Our turbine is long in the tooth....[but] we know it extremely well and how it is going to run, and that is a lot of the battle in our business,” he said.
Still, Seaforth understands the need to innovate. It has a research project under way to improve the power output of the AOC machine at lower wind speeds, by lengthening the blades. The key is to “keep the good things about the design, its structure and reliability,” Mr. Barry said, while improving its performance.
Mr. Barry said Canada’s disproportionate strength in small wind is remarkable given that there is little government support for the sector.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/small-turbines-generate-huge-sales-potential/article2227323/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2227323
Wind Turbines Blow into Port of Halifax
The new turbines are destined for the Sprott Power Corp. wind farm in Amherst which is expected to have a generating capacity of 31.5 megawatts. Premier Darrell Dexter personally greeted the first of 15 wind turbines destined for a new wind farm at the Port of Halifax yesterday. Dexter was joined by representatives from Suzlon Wind Energy Corp. — who produced the turbines — and Sprott Power Corp., who will run the new operation in Amherst. The Amherst wind farm will be the first in North America to use Suzlon’s new S97 model turbines, and is expected to have a generating capacity of 31.5 megawatts. Dexter touted the province’s progress toward renewable energy goals (25 per cent by 2015, 40 per cent by 2020), as well as the government’s efforts to create jobs in rural Nova Scotia. “Over the past six years, the price of coal has risen 75 per cent,” Dexter said in a statement. “The government has established aggressive targets to help reduce the province’s dependence on fossil fuels.”
DSTN PRODUCES FIRST TOWER SECTION
DSTN reached another major milestone recently when it transferred its first, unpainted, steel tower section from its production shop to its paint facilities.
Commenting on the significance of the event, DSTN’s operations superintendant Brad Matthews said: "Starting a new factory is about much more than just installing equipment and hitting the ‘on’ switch. Over the last few months we have invested an enormous amount of time and effort in installing new equipment, commissioning it and then bringing everyone up to speed with that equipment as well as the demanding processes associated with tower manufacturing. This tower is the result of that effort."
The tower section, measuring 23.6 meters in length and weighing 29 tonnes, is the top section of a wind tower that will reach a total height of over 85 meters. The tower will now be transferred to the paint shop where the steel will be blasted, painted and top-coated before all the internals are installed. Once that process is completed the section will be kept in DSTN's new storage yard until it is collected by its client.
DSTN says it has been faced with many challenges and setbacks that, through hard work and dedication from its staff of over 145 employees, it has begun to overcome. This first tower section marks just the beginning of many more sections that are near completion within the production facility.
Energy Minister Minds His Words On Joint Grid
Lex Boutilier - METRO HALIFAX
June 16, 2011 12:53 a.m.
Nova Scotia’s energy minister will wait for studies before commenting on one of his counterparts’ suggestion of placing four provinces’ energy grids under a single operator. Charlie Parker was responding to comments made by Prince Edward Island Energy Minister Richard Brown, who suggested New Brunswick’s system operator should oversee the energy requirements of the region. A regional system operator could play to the provinces’ strengths — for instance, during periods of high wind in Nova Scotia, more wind energy would be pushed into the grid. “Energy continues to be dealt with in silos in Atlantic Canada, but I think both the utilities and the governments have realized those silos have to come down,” Brown told the Telegraph Journal. But before weighing in on the idea, Parker wants to see the results of recently commissioned reports into the issue. “That’s sort of where we’re at. We’re waiting for those studies to come forward and see what options they might present to us,” Parker said yesterday. “Until those studies come forward, I can’t say what might be the best at this point in time.” Parker reiterated he believes in working with the three other Atlantic prov¬inces on energy matters — but he would not say if he thought NBSO taking the reins was the best option. It was one of the options suggested in a December 2009 report to the government on system operator options for Nova Scotia, composed by SNC-Lavalin. Currently, Nova Scotia’s system operator operates as a branch of Nova Scotia Power Inc., but the report recommended making it independent. In the long-term, the report details advantages to a single system operator serving the Maritimes and beyond.
http://www.metronews.ca/halifax/local/article/891308--energy-minister-minds-his-words-on-joint-grid
New Era Powers Up At Trenton Complex
By AARON BESWICK Truro Bureau
Wed, Jun 15
TRENTON — The provincial government is officially in the steel fabrication business. On Tuesday, Premier Darrell Dexter joined the province’s business partner, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Ltd., at the reopening of the former TrentonWorks railcar manufacturing plant. Surrounding them were the massive steel tubes that, when stacked and welded together, will be the first wind turbine tower produced at the plant. The plant employs about 100 workers. Daewoo has said employment will increase to about 400 once it starts building turbine blades at the facility over the next year. While they expect to build 50 towers this year, the goal is to produce 250 towers annually by 2015, with sale revenues of $115 million, Daewoo president Sang-Tae Nam said. Nam said the wind turbine industry has grown significantly in recent years and the meltdown of nuclear facilities in Japan, following an earthquake and tsunami earlier this year, will compound that growth. Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Trenton Ltd. "is a great example of a project that wouldn’t have happened without the co-operation of the town, the province and the federal government," Dexter said.
The province paid $19.6 million for a 49 per cent ownership of the company and another $40 million for capital loans and to purchase the previously mothballed plant’s assets from receivers. Daewoo, a diversified company from South Korea and one of the world’s largest shipbuilders, invested $20 million and is 51 per cent owner of the company. The federal government provided $10 million but did not get an equity stake. "Those are expensive jobs," said Stephen McNeil, Nova Scotia’s Liberal leader. "We’ve got $70 million in government money invested and 100 jobs so far, that’s $500,000 a job and we haven’t seen a business plan yet." Charles Cirtwill, president of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, also remains unconvinced. "If this is such a good investment, then why couldn’t they get this money in the private marketplace," said Cirtwill. Dexter, however, said Daewoo’s expertise will be helpful "throughout the supply chain" of the Nova Scotia wind power industry. He pointed to the company’s partnering with the Nova Scotia Community College to train skilled workers and their support of wind power research at Dalhousie University. This will be Daewoo’s first foray into the North American wind industry.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1248534.html
Quick Facts Available at: http://gov.ns.ca/news/smr/2011-06-14-DSTN-Opening/
Shear Wind Moves Forward in NS and NB
May 26, 2011 20:15 ET
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA and CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - May 26, 2011)
Shear Wind Inc. ("Shear Wind") (TSX VENTURE:SWX) has secured a new project site in Nova Scotia which will fit well into Shear Wind's strategy for future development and growth. The new location, named Canaan Mountain, is on the west side of the province, and the project land has been secured with the local landowners. Shear Wind has initiated an interconnection application with Nova Scotia Power to ensure access to transmission for future development. Two meteorological towers will be erected immediately to collect wind data necessary to assess which turbine technology best suits the site. Advancement of the Benjamin River project site which was secured a few years ago in northern New Brunswick is another priority for Shear Wind. Wind assessment will commence this summer with the erection of a meteorological tower on site. Mike Magnus, President and CEO, stated, "Our business strategy is to be ready to answer calls for renewable energy generation facilities from the public utilities in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. We are excited to add Canaan Mountain to our portfolio, as it has the potential for a valuable wind farm for us and for the community, and provides an excellent export option because of the location. We are rapidly moving forward with development work on these two projects, in both provinces." Shear Wind has a pipeline of projects in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Most recently the 62.1 Megawatt Glen Dhu Wind Facility was completed in March 2011, with plans to expand that facility in the future.
Shear Wind Celebrates Opening of Glen Dhu Wind Farm
May 09, 2011
Halifax, Nova Scotia; Calgary, Alberta - Shear Wind Inc. ("Shear Wind") (TSX VENTURE: SWX) today celebrated the official opening of its 62.1-Megawatt Glen Dhu wind farm ("Glen Dhu Wind Farm") with over one hundred people on its site located between Pictou and Antigonish counties in Nova Scotia.
In attendance were government officials including the premier of Nova Scotia, the Minister of Energy, municipal leaders, shareholders, industry partners and community members.
“This is a great day for Shear Wind. Not only are we marking the official opening of Glen Dhu Phase 1 – our Company’s first major wind farm at 62.1MW; but we’re celebrating this community’s contribution to clean, renewable energy,” said Mike Magnus, President & CEO, Shear Wind. “We couldn’t have come this far without the community support, the Government’s vision, and the participation and hard work from our project partners and employees here at Glen Dhu.”
The Glen Dhu Wind Farm allows the province to meet its 2015 renewable energy targets. The wind energy produced by the Glen Dhu Wind Farm is expected to represent 35 per cent of Nova Scotia Power’s 2010 Renewable Energy Standard (RES) target and is anticipated to produce energy to power 18,000 homes.
“In 2002, we had two wind turbines in Nova Scotia. Today there are more than 160 commercial turbines,” said Premier Dexter. “Nova Scotia has some of the most ambitious renewable energy targets in the world. We are achieving those targets through the hard work, ingenuity and innovation of organizations such as Shear Wind. It’s an exciting time to be part of the energy business in Nova Scotia.”
Genera Avante Holdings Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Inveravante Inversiones Universales, S.L., in Spain is Shear Wind’s largest shareholder. Inveravante has ownership of wind facilities in Europe and parts of South America.
Shear Wind estimates that the Glen Dhu Wind Farm has resulted in a direct and indirect investment of approximately $40 million in Nova Scotia, $22 million of which has been invested directly in Pictou and Antigonish counties and $2 million of which was generated through worker spending.
“At its peak, 120 workers were employed producing 140,000 direct full-time equivalent hours,” said Ian Tillard, Chief Operating Officer. “I’m proud to say that 83 per cent of the work was done by Nova Scotians.”
Shear Wind has mapped out a three-fold expansion for Glen Dhu in Phases two and three that will harness the steady Northumberland Strait winds and produce more wind energy. Shear Wind estimates that a phase two and phase three expansion of the Glen Dhu site could realize an additional 170 Megawatts. The company also has properties for wind farm development in New Brunswick and Alberta.
http://smr.newswire.ca/en/shear-wind-inc/shear-wind-celebrates-glen-dhu-wind-farm-opening
Wind Breaks N.S. Power Generation Record
By JOANN ALBERSTAT Business Reporter
Fri, May 6
At least our cold, wet spring weather is good for generating green energy.
Nova Scotia Power Inc. announced this week that there were two days last month when 20 per cent of the province’s electricity came from wind power.
"It’s the most that we’ve ever gotten from wind in the history of the province," Rob Bennett, president of Nova Scotia Power, said in an interview earlier this week.
"That’s a fantastic result compared to where we were just a few short years ago, where only a small percentage was coming from wind, so we’ve made great strides."
On April 24 at midnight, wind farms generated 250 megawatts of power, surpassing the previous record of 235 megawatts set on April 14 at 8 a.m.
On an average day, five to 10 per cent of power comes from wind, Nova Scotia Power says. The amount varies based on such factors as demand for electricity, time of year and time of day. Bennett said the record-breaking 20 per cent figure was possible because it was windy throughout the province at the same time.
"The wind farms are spread out. Sometimes it’s windy in one area and not in the other," he said.
Seven wind farms, with a total of 119 turbines, have been added to the grid since December 2009. They are owned by Nova Scotia Power and private producers.
The Dexter government has mandated that 25 per cent of electricity be generated by renewable sources by 2015, increasing to 40 per cent by 2020.
Coal generated 65 per cent of the province’s power last year, down from 80 per cent in 2006, Bennett told the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Halifax on Wednesday.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1241902.html
Blades up and blowing
Last turbine in province’s largest wind farm hooked up
By JOANN ALBERSTAT Business Reporter
Sat, Apr 2 - 4:54 AM
The largest wind farm in Nova Scotia is now fully operational after coming down to the wire on a construction deadline.
Shear Wind Inc. finished connecting the last of 27 turbines at its Glen Dhu wind farm at 2 p.m. Thursday.
"We were pretty ecstatic to have the project fully commissioned," Shear Wind president Mike Magnus said in an interview Friday.
Company officials were also relieved to finish the $150-million project Thursday because March 31 was the deadline for producing 60 megawatts of power for Nova Scotia Power.
The Glen Dhu project, which straddles the Pictou-Antigonish county boundary, began producing green energy in December when nine turbines became operational. That met a Dec. 31 requirement for producing 20 megawatts of wind power. Otherwise, the Bedford renewable energy company would have had to pay the provincial utility a $1.5-million penalty.
Magnus said all of the remaining 18 German-manufactured turbines were fully erected last week. Once the last one was officially hooked up to the grid Thursday, the project became capable of generating 62.1 megawatts of power, or enough to power about 18,000 homes.
"We had a couple of turbines left at the beginning of this week to interconnect and commission and they were fully completed by (Thursday)."
Ian Tillard, Shear Wind’s chief operating officer, gave credit to subcontractors and noted that most of the work was done by Nova Scotians.
"We think we’ve done a tremendous job, working with Nova Scotia and local suppliers."
The company president said he wasn’t worried about meeting Thursday’s deadline.
"We’ve had a number of significant weather delays that caused the project to be a little bit behind schedule in our own personal schedules, but not the key schedules to be met," Magnus said. "We would have liked to obviously have been fully commissioned earlier but Nova Scotia had one of its worst winters in 50 years."
This winter’s weather wasn’t the only challenge the project faced.
Shear Wind’s original plan was to be fully operational by Dec. 31, 2009. But the collapse of world financial markets in 2008 prevented the company from securing project financing until late 2009.
Inveravante, a privately held Spanish utility conglomerate, bought a 62 per cent stake in Shear Wind for $27 million, and an agreement was worked out with Nova Scotia Power that gave the company new deadlines for producing power.
The green energy company had been hit with a $500,000 penalty for not meeting the original deadline for producing green electricity.
Shear Wind stock was unchanged late Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange at 28 cents a share.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1236218.html
URB says no public money for $1m wind company bonus
By CHRIS LAMBIE Business Editor
Thu, Mar 10 - 4:55 AM
The provincial regulator has ruled Nova Scotia Power can’t pass on the cost to customers of a $1-million bonus it paid to an affiliate company to complete its own Digby wind farm last year. In a decision released Tuesday, the provincial Utility and Review Board disallowed the bonus given to Emera Utility Services Inc., an affiliate of Nova Scotia Power’s parent company, Emera Inc., on a $25-million untendered contract. It was the sole bonus Nova Scotia Power handed out for wind projects. "The board finds that the proposed cost of the Digby wind project of $82.8 million requires a reduction of the $1-million bonus payment to EUS due to non-compliance with the code of conduct (laid out by the board) and inadequate evidence to support this payment as justifiable or warranted," said the 60-page decision. The regulator also knocked $2 million or more off the final construction cost of the project, bringing it down to about $79.8 million. "The board understands, based on NSPI’s evidence, that the final cost approval application to the board will show a reduction of at least $2 million in the Digby wind project construction cost," said the decision.
Nova Scotia Power bought the Digby wind farm last year from another affiliate, 3240384 Nova Scotia Ltd. It was seeking review board approval to pass along to customers the $82.7-million cost of buying the assets and development rights. The province’s consumer advocate, John Merrick, argued in his submission to the board in January that Nova Scotia Power’s customers should not be on the hook for the $1-million bonus, and he questioned whether the utility got the lowest possible construction price by hiring Emera Utility Services. It received the bonus for performing "basic contractual obligations," and Nova Scotia Power hasn’t justified the payment, Merrick wrote. But the board determined that "while the transaction between NSPI and (its numbered affiliate) does not comply with the code (of conduct), the resulting acquisition of the Digby wind project represents the ‘best available deal’ at the time," said the decision released Wednesday.
The regulator got letters from the public that complained, among other things, about the potential health hazards posed by living in close proximity to wind farms. "While the board recognizes the position of the residents in their opposition to this project, these concerns, including the potential for health hazards as a result of wind turbines, have already been considered as part of the approval process conducted by other authorities," said the decision. "As a result, the concerns expressed by area residents opposing the Digby wind project do not fall within the board’s jurisdiction." The wind farm’s original developer, SkyPower, went into creditor protection in August 2009 and a numbered company, set up by Emera Inc., took over the project, which is now producing power. Nova Scotia Power had no comment Wednesday on the $1-million bonus being disallowed. But it was "pleased that the board saw that Nova Scotia Power and its affiliates did what they could to move the project forward under difficult circumstances," said company spokeswoman Jennifer Parker.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1232309.html
Nuttby Mountain turbine bases cracked
Nearly all of the 22 turbine foundations at Nova Scotia Power's Nuttby Mountain wind farm are cracked, CBC News has learned. "Wherever we identify cracks, they are being addressed. I think right now we are at 19 of the 22," NSP spokesman David Rodenhiser said Tuesday. The problem came to light late last year when it was discovered five of the towers were moving beyond manufacturers specifications. During construction last July at the $120-million wind farm, concrete was not vibrated down to the steel base of the towers. Movement with the remaining towers is within acceptable tolerance levels, Rodenhiser said, but NSP decided to repair them anyway. "We've found some cracking in some of the other foundations …we decided the most prudent measure was to address those as well," he said. The repairs involve injecting an epoxy-like sealant into the 400-tonne concrete pads to stabilize the concrete.
The German supplier, Enercon Canada Inc., supplied the turbines and is paying for the repairs, which are covered under warranty. "It is my understanding that there was vibration and tamping that did not get done to the extent that the concrete settled all the way to the bottom of the steel," Rodenhiser said. It will be well into March at the earliest, before the repairs are completed. As the foundations are repaired, towers will be brought into service generating electricity for the provincial grid. "There have been towers taken out of service while these repairs are done, and then once the repairs are completed, the towers are brought back into service," Rodenhiser said.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/02/01/ns-nuttby-mountain-wind-farm-cracks.html
NSP CUSTOMERS ASKED TO PAY FOR UNTENDERED WIND CONTRACT
Consumer advocate: Emera gave contract to affiliate, failed to get lowest price
Nova Scotia Power customers are being asked to pay for an untendered $25-million construction contract, along with a $1-million bonus, to an affiliate of its parent company, Emera Inc. The contract is for the development of the Digby wind farm.
The utility has failed to get the lowest price for its customers, John Merrick, Nova Scotia’s consumer advocate, said during the first day of a hearing before the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.
"I’m not sure they kicked the tires hard enough to make sure they got that best possible price," Merrick told reporters outside the hearing room. "Nova Scotia Power really has to be thinking about the ratepayers and not just (Emera) shareholders."
Emera Utility Services Inc., a subsidiary of Halifax-based Emera, was awarded the $25-million contract to oversee construction of the $82.7-million Digby wind farm project last year.
The 20-turbine wind farm is currently operating and produces enough electricity to power 10,000 homes.
The power utility is seeking board approval to pass along the construction costs to build the green project to its 470,000 customers. The review board can approve the expenditure, approve with conditions, or reject the request.
Board vice-chairwoman Margaret Shears raised concerns about the $82.7-million wind farm deal and the lack of evidence presented by the utility to prove that the $25-million construction contract was the best deal for ratepayers.
She said the board has little evidence, other than the utility’s opinion "that it’s the best price Nova Scotia Power could have gotten."
She said the board brought in the affiliate code of conduct years ago after Nova Scotia Power failed to properly tender contracts to ensure the lowest prices for its customers. The board needs to ensure these big expenditures are in the best interest of ratepayers because they will "shoulder the cost of it," she said.
Nova Scotia Power president Rob Bennett defended awarding the contract to a sister company, saying the project was built on time and on budget.
"Nova Scotia Power’s engagement of affiliates provided demonstrable benefits to our customers," Bennett said in an opening statement to the board.
Merrick said Nova Scotia Power executives argue the contract provided customers with the "equivalent" price in the marketplace.
"Asking someone to match the price is not the same as asking someone to give their best price. They’re lowest price, that’s the test that should be applied."
Merrick wants the board to determine whether Nova Scotia Power has not complied with the affiliate code of conduct, which stipulates the lowest price must always be reasonable and justifiable, especially when dealing with other related companies.
He also called the "bonus" suspicious, considering it was to be awarded as an incentive to have the work completed before the Dec. 20, 2010, deadline. Some of the turbines started generating power in late November and the remainder were installed by the contract completion date of Dec. 20, 2010.
Emera originally picked up the struggling wind farm project in 2009 and took full control in February 2010 from Interwinds Corp. (formerly SkyPower) and Scotian Windfields, using a numbered company, 3240384 Nova Scotia Ltd., headed by Emera president Chris Huskilson.
In June, Emera transferred the assets of the numbered company to Nova Scotia Power, which now is looking to have these costs picked up by its customers.
The hearing wrapped up late Wednesday.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1220408.html
CRANE BUSINESS GROWIN' IN THE WIND
NEW GLASGOW FIRM BUSY WITH TURBINES
The wind turbine industry is blowing lots of business to A.W. Leil Cranes and Equipment Ltd. of New Glasgow.
"Over the past couple of years, we’ve put up about 130 units in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and we have a busy year ahead," Al Leil said Tuesday in an interview.
His father of the same name started the business 54 years ago.
"We have the right equipment and the right people," Leil said of the company’s involvement with major wind turbine installations in the region.
A.W. Leil crews and cranes are now working at the Glen Dhu wind farm project near Antigonish. Shear Wind Inc. of Bedford is installing 27 turbines as part of that project.
A.W. Leil and its crews previously hoisted massive turbine components into place at some of the windiest worksites in this part of Canada.
"When you’re putting up a wind turbine, you can be sure about one thing — it will be windy," Leil said.
He said it takes about a week to get a turbine into place, mostly due to the difficulties and delays associated with working in strong winds.
The company employs about 70 people. Its roots are in New Glasgow but it has branches in Dartmouth, Port Hawkesbury and Sydney. The Dartmouth location is also the home of the company’s Sagadore Cranes and Equipment division.
Cranes operated by A. W. Leil and Sagadore can often be spotted at major construction sites of all sorts, including large building projects and bridge installations.
"We developed the expertise to handle the big turbines, but we’re also very busy with other projects," Leil said.
The heavy-duty crane specialists will also provide the Defence Department with equipment rentals valued at about $1.15 million over the next 15 months. That contract, announced Tuesday by the Defence Department, is for the provision of specialized winches, hoists, cranes and derricks.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1220345.html
NUTTBY MOUNTAIN TURBINES IMPROPERLY INSTALLED
There are problems with the foundations of at least five of the 22 wind turbines installed this past summer at Nova Scotia Power's wind farm on Nuttby Mountain, north of Truro, CBC News has learned.
Three of the turbines are shut down for repairs because the 400-tonne concrete pads were improperly installed, Mark Savory, vice-president of technical and construction services for Nova Scotia Power, said Wednesday.
The concrete was improperly installed at five of the towers, and don't meet manufacturer's tolerance levels for tower movement. Four more may also need repairing, he said. Two have already been fixed and are back in operation.
"We saw some cracking and that started us to say, 'What's going on?' " Savory said. "Then we started to notice what we thought was movement between the steel and the concrete."
During construction last July at the $120-million wind farm, concrete was not vibrated down to the steel base of the tower.
"There's a little bit of a gap and it's like millimeters between the steel and the concrete. So what tends to happen is that can allow the turbine to move a little more than it's supposed to," Savory said.
Ratepayers are not on the hook, Savory said, because the towers are under warranty. The German supplier, Enercon Canada Inc., is paying for the repairs, which involves pumping in an epoxy like substance into the base.
"What you're actually seeing is some surfacing cracking. If you think about it, it's like a top hat and it it actually starts to rock a little bit, the concrete on the edge will crack and chip off," Savory said.
Savory said this is a minor problem and should be fixed by the end of January.
Enercon, one of the biggest wind turbine suppliers in the world, did not respond to a request for a comment.
The Nova Scotia government has ordered NSPI to generate five per cent of its electricity from renewable sources next year, rising to 20 per cent in four years.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/01/06/ns-nuttby-mountain-wind-farm-repairs.html
WITH N.S. PROJECT ONLINE, WIND FARM DEVELOPER HOPING FOR START IN N.B.
HALIFAX - The head of Shear Wind Inc. says the partial launch of his company's Nova Scotia wind farm proves the firm can build more wind sites across Canada, possibly in northern New Brunswick.
"Anybody looking at Shear Wind ... should understand and believe in our ability to execute on our projects," said company president and CEO Mike Magnus on Thursday. "There were a bunch of hoops and hurdles to go through, but we made it."
On Dec. 31, one-third of Shear Wind's 62-megawatt Glen Dhu wind farm went online.
That means the $150-million project, the company's first wind farm, is now producing electricity for Nova Scotia Power Inc. through a 20-year power purchase agreement.
"The first project is the most important one. It's a stepping stone for the growth we're planning (over) the next five years," Magnus said in an interview.
"It demonstrates the ability of this management team to execute and build out a successful wind farm ... It's a major accomplishment." Magnus said the entire Glen Dhu site, located east of New Glasgow, will be up and running by March 31.
And by bringing Glen Dhu to fruition, Shear Wind has proven its ability to launch other wind farms, including in northern New Brunswick, Magnus said.
The company is looking to develop a 75 MW to 100 MW wind farm in Restigouche County. Costing up to $250 million, the project would create 150 construction jobs and 75 permanent positions, Magnus said.
The planned location, referred to as the Mann Siding site, is situated on Crown-leased land just outside the town of Saint-Quentin.
Magnus says the company is awaiting a request for proposals calling for more wind-powered electricity in New Brunswick. But it's unclear when, or if, that call will come.
In December, New Brunswick Energy Department spokesman Jim Hennessy said there are no current plans to commission more wind power. "It's not as encouraging as I would like it to be," Magnus said Thursday. "I hope their plans involve an RFP process in the future. We're investing a lot of effort in New Brunswick to be ready for an announcement like that," he said. "But obviously we're not going to push forward (without) having agreements in place."
Currently, New Brunswick has 249 MW of installed wind power output, with an additional 45 MW scheduled to come online in February or March. That capacity is located on two wind farms: TransAlta's Kent Hills site near Moncton (150 MW), and the Caribou Wind Park near Bathurst (99 MW), which is owned by GDF Suez S.A.
Shear Wind (TSX-V:SWX), which is based in Halifax, wants to produce up to 500 MW of wind-generated electricity within five years. The company plans to start construction of its 100 MW Willowridge Project in southern Alberta in late 2011 or early 2012.
Inveravante, a privately held Spanish-utility conglomerate, holds 62 per cent of Shear Wind, which was founded in 2005 and initially funded by a group of friends.
http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com/journal/article/1368460
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