You’ve no idea how happy I am to see several of these little fellers on my SCADA system:
That means we’re up and running. Go Lake Erie!
work as if you live in the early days of a better nation
You’ve no idea how happy I am to see several of these little fellers on my SCADA system:
That means we’re up and running. Go Lake Erie!
Well, this was my last day at EPCOR. The last two and a bit years have been fun.
It’s strange to think that I can fit my entire desk contents into one file box:
I also made sure I didn’t break with tradition:
Hydro-Québec announced their wind RFP winners yesterday. It’s a huge deal for the industry; more than 2000 MW of contracts awarded, with commissioning dates ranging from 2011-2015. Enercon and REpower won all the manufacturing; strict local content requirements mean that they will have to set up shop in Québec.
This is good for the Canadian industry. Now the real work begins.
I’m sad to leave Montréal. Not just was it one of the most productive work weeks I’ve ever had (thanks to the fine folks at Hélimax), but the city is great. I’ve had some spectacular meals here – the two little bistros within walking distance of the office are fantastic; way better than the 40+ mediocre fast-food outlets near my office. One evening we went to Pintxo – nummy Basque food.
I think I’d probably eat less here, because the food is worth savouring. There’s care and love in the food here, not boil-in-the-bag slop.
Chatham Daily News is conducting an online poll asking if the opponents to wind power are just NIMBY’s. You can review the poll, the results and vote at http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/.
A recent BBC news story from Scotland leads with:
Wind farms could hit tourist jobs
Wind farms could cost Scotland’s tourism industry millions of pounds and hundreds of jobs, a report has warned.
But the findings of the report are much milder:
This research has shown that even using a worst case scenario the impact of current applications would be very small …
… Our overall conclusion is that the effects are so small that, provided planning and marketing are carried out effectively, there is no reason why the two are incompatible.
So it looks, as usual, as if the BBC is trying to make wind turbines look far worse than they really are.
Yesterday — five years after the WindShare turbine started generating — Sky Generation‘s Ravenswood wind farm was officially opened. Ravenswood is the first wind farm built under the Ontario Standard Offer program, and four of its six 1.65MW turbines operate under that system. The other two turbines supply power to Bullfrog.
Tom Heintzman, Glen Estill and Martin Ince.
The Mayor, the Landowner and the Energy Minister cut the ribbon.
Glen explains the SCADA to Gerry Phillips, Ontario Energy Minister.
Here’s what Glen said about the opening: Grand Opening of Ravenswood.
Micro-wind turbines often increase CO2, says study | Environment | The Guardian
The Building Research Establishment Trust, which advises the government and private sector, has found that in built-up towns and cities weak winds and turbulence mean turbines are likely to add to, not subtract from, a home’s carbon footprint.
I drove past Ripley Wind Farm today. Looks like most of the turbines are energised (they were yawed into the wind) and one was running.
Dave Bidini‘s article in today’s Globe & Mail, An ill wind blows (now irritatingly hidden behind a paywall, but helpfully cached here) troubles me about what got through basic fact-checking:
BWEA – Google Map of all UK wind farms – wonder if we can do the same for CanWEA?
I picked up these crayons at the GE Wind stand at CanWEA:
Yes, those really are the colour names – Purification Purple, Evolution Orange, Mother Earth Brown, Cleaner Coal Black, Solar Yellow, Revitalized Red, Hybrid Green, Clear Water Blue.
Is there a connection between wind power and crayons? Wait until I don my polyester leisure jacket, James Burke-style, until I tell you: Edwin Binney, inventor of Crayola, had a daughter (Dorothy) who married George P. Putnam. Putnam went on (with only a short detour into promoting then marrying the person for whom the word “aviatrix” is most often used, Amelia Earhart) to help create the Smith-Putnam wind turbine (itself perhaps the most heroically unsuccessful story in the history of wind energy).Wind turbines; crayons: it’s all connected, see?
Maybe I should’ve picked up a bunch of these at the show, as even a ratty package of them is going for over $30 on eBay. I’m glad that mine are already on their way to a 4 year old in Ohio, where they will be appreciated more than by any collector.
I’m a big fan of Thomas Dolby, and I don’t even mind admitting that it was one of his songs that initially got me thinking about what to do with my life (“… etch out a future of your own design”, and all that) . I got Thomas’s Live in Chicago DVD, and was a bit shocked by the visuals he used for wind power:
Those are some old wind turbines. This would be a bit like going for some modern computer imagery, and plunking for a picture of a VIC-20.
I mean, eww – those blades are filthy!
I’m at a Hydro One seminar on distributed generation connection issues. The speaker just said that the breakeven for vanadium flow battery power storage is $280/MWh. Ouch!
I visited the Wind Energy Institute of Canada in North Cape yesterday. They have some neat machines there – I’ll show you them once I get a proper network connection.
Ontario getting 2000MW more renewables is undoubtedly good news. But we’ve got some other concerns that need dealt with – lack of transmission, our woeful energy efficiency, consumers paying less than the true cost of power, amongst others – that make make this announcement less joyful than one might at first think.
North American Windpower: Content / Projects & Contracts / AAER Signs Turbine MOU With Positive Power Co-Op
Wind turbine manufacturer AAER Inc., headquartered in Bromont, Quebec, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Hamilton, Ontario-based Positive Power Co-op for the sale of two A-1500-77-80 wind power turbines, worth C$4.5 million.
I drove through Suncor/Acciona‘s Ripley wind farm the other night. They’re just constructing, but this summer has been almost perfect weather for building (dry, still — which kind of sucks for farmers and those of us with wind farms nearby, but it’s an ill calm …).
I don’t usually take pictures of parked or machines under construction, but these Enercons are quite something.