Nova Scotians will be getting more and more of their electricity from wind turbines. Within the next five years, Renewable Energy Resources of Windsor, N.S., hopes to be producing 30 megawatts of wind power.
By Jonathan Riley <jriley@dal.ca>
Posted: Nov. 1, 2004
Wind power is the fastest growing energy source ever: World Watch. Photo: 2003-11-14 ©Greenpeace
Larry Leblanc has spent most of his career in the oil industry doing what he calls frontier start-up work. Today, as president of Renewable Energy Services, he is exploring an exciting new frontier for Nova Scotia – commercial-scale energy production using wind turbines.
“This is like the first Tim Hortons,” he says. “We’re at the very inception of this business.”
Next spring, RESL will set up two huge wind turbines to generate electricity in the Halifax area, one near Lake Major in Dartmouth and the other in Goodwood to the west of Halifax. The turbines, costing approximately $1.5 million each, will be 65 metres, or 20 storeys, tall with propellers 48 metres in diameter.
Leblanc says prospecting for wind power is just like exploring for oil. Following that analogy, these turbines could be seen as test wells.
“They’re going to allow us to do some additional exploration work while producing power,” says Leblanc. “And then we’ll properly design the production turbines based on what we learn.”
Nova Scotia Power hopes to install a 3.6 MW turbine offshore like these in the North Sea off the U.K. Photo: 2003-11-13 ©Greenpeace
Leblanc describes the turbines RESL is installing as midsize and says they will generate one megawatt of electricity each for sale to Nova Scotia Power. Besides producing electricity and testing the wind power of the sites, Leblanc says these turbines will serve a third important function. He says one of the reasons RESL wants a turbine in the Halifax Regional Municipality is so people can go and see it.
“People typically have misconceptions as to what these things are,” he says.
For instance, he says, contrary to popular belief, the number of birds killed in collisions with wind turbines is insignificant when compared to the number of birds flying into picture windows. The blades also turn much slower than people imagine, he says, somewhere between 20 and 30 revolutions per minute. They are so quiet, he says, that at 300 metres it’s like being in a library. Until RESL’s turbines are spinning, Leblanc suggests people check out a video of a turbine installed by Toronto Wind Share on the Toronto waterfront.
!["We [RESL] hope to grow this into a very significant buisness." Photo: 1998-10-01 ©Greenpeace/Calderon, Walter](files/sunsetwind_gp2.jpg)
"We [RESL] hope to grow this into a very significant buisness." Photo: 1998-10-01 ©Greenpeace/Calderon, Walter
Anne Warburton of the Ecology Action Centre supports the use of wind energy.
“Besides being clean, non-depleting and incredibly efficient, we’re harvesting a resource right here and not importing energy,” she says. "This makes us more self-sufficient.”
Margaret Murphy of Nova Scotia Power says widespread public support is one of the many reasons wind power is taking off now in Nova Scotia.
“The technology has got to the point where there’s a strong business case,” she says. “Wind is starting to be more competitive with some of the more lower-cost traditional methods of making power.”
For example, using coal to make electricity in existing power plants costs approximately four or five cents per kilowatt-hour. Wind costs approximately six or seven cents per kilowatt-hour, but there’s also a federal program called the Wind Power Production Incentive which pays producers approximately one cent per kilowatt-hour. And Murphy says customers are willing to pay a few extra cents for this clean, non-depleting energy source.
Nova Scotia Power has approved 15 new wind turbine projects across the province this week, almost doubling the number presently operating here. Right now, Nova Scotia’s total installed capacity from all energy sources is close to 2200 megawatts. Murphy says the province’s wind power capacity will soon be 30 megawatts and when these 15 new projects come on line in 2005, this capacity will increase by another 28 megawatts.
Leblanc likes the growth potential of wind power. If RESL finds enough wind with its midsize turbines, Leblanc says the next step is setting up wind farms like the 17-turbine operation in Pubnico. In fact, RESL hopes to have six or seven “good-sized” wind farms around the province producing a total of 35 megawatts within the next five years.
“We hope," says Leblanc, "to grow this into a very significant business.”