August 12, 2009
2 Comments

Hope Blowing in the Wind

by Tzeporah Berman

I wrote a piece based on my visit to BC’s first wind farm which is published in today’s Vancouver Sun.

The new generation turbines are impressive. They were so quiet, if you weren’t looking at them you could only tell they were running by the shadows they cast. Yet they’re more than three times more powerful than the modified plane propellers put up in the 80s. “Gentle giants” was the term that kept coming to me. Here’s an excerpt:

Hope is blowing in the wind for British Columbia

By Tzeporah Berman, Special to the Sun August 12, 2009

Standing under the mesmerizing blades of the new wind energy park up at Dawson Creek last week was a moment to celebrate: The gentle giants at British Columbia’s first wind farm are now feeding clean electricity onto the grid.

The most striking thing about the new wind farm is how utterly normal it all seems. Looking out over Mike’s Steak House to the ridge in the distance, the wind park is simply a quiet symbol of hope in a world addicted to fossil fuels.

I also couldn’t help but think: frankly it’s about time. Given all the chatter about B.C.’s climate leadership, you would think windmills and solar panels would be as common as in Germany.

We’re often lulled into thinking we’re “green” because of the big hydro dams built by previous generations. But three-quarters of the energy used in B.C. — to move us around, heat our homes and run our economy — still comes from fossil fuels. And whether B.C. will catch up to our neighbours is now in question since the regulators, government and BC Hydro are tangled in a quasi-judicial conflict at the BC Utilities Commission. Will future clean energy projects get bogged down in a swamp of legal-sized paper?

…

A clean energy economy is within our grasp, but it needs focus. The Obama administration is outspending Canada 14-1 (per capita) in its green jobs surge towards a new energy economy. The Europeans are out ahead. And now China, South Korea and other Asian nations have joined the clean energy race in a massive way….

Link to full article

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2 Responses so far...

  1. Tanislaw says:
    August 21, 2009 at 10:29 am

    The capacity factor for wind is in the upper 20% to about 33% max.  Depends highly on the location.  Offshore is preferred.

    For example if a tower has a 2 MW turbine and the CF is 30%, then the energy produced on the average for a year will be:

    2 x 8.76 x .3 = 5.3 GWh/a

  2. enviral says:
    August 17, 2009 at 5:52 am

    Do you know the actual output of these wind-turbines?  
    Capacity wise they may be great but how much energy per kwh are they actually producing?


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