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High hopes for wind die down

St. Joseph turbine project delayed, nine others shelved

By: Mary Agnes Welch

14/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 23

Only 99 megawatts of wind power have hit the grid in Manitoba, all from the St. Leon wind farm that opened four years ago.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Only 99 megawatts of wind power have hit the grid in Manitoba, all from the St. Leon wind farm that opened four years ago.

Manitoba's green-energy projects are sucking wind compared to other provinces and companies that develop and service wind farms are starting to take their business elsewhere.

While Manitoba's newest wind farm, a 300-megawatt project near St. Joseph, is mired in delays and nine more proposed projects have been shelved, Ontario has launched a radical program aimed at fast-tracking turbines.

"Things are kind of at a sad standstill in Manitoba," said Justin Rangooni, a policy expert at the Canadian Wind Energy Association. "There's a lot of frustration. Developers are simply giving up."

Total Wind Canada Inc., an international wind farm construction and maintenance company, opened an office in Morden, hoping to work on the St. Joseph wind farm and others built after it.

Instead, sales and managing director Michelle Purkess is sending her staff to work and train on wind projects in Denmark, Hungary and Poland, even though Manitoba has some of the best wind on the continent.

"We put our company here hoping St. Joseph would be up and running, but it's been three years," said Purkess. "What is it that's holding us back in Manitoba while every other province is going heavy and hard?"

The NDP government has promised to install 1,000 megawatts of wind power by 2015. So far, only 99 megawatts have hit the grid, all from the St. Leon wind farm that opened four years ago.

The next wind farm, in nearby St. Joseph, was originally slated to be built by Babcock & Brown. It's more than a year late and mired in financial uncertainty after the Australian mega-firm imploded and sold its wind division to Pattern Energy. A year after former premier Gary Doer touted the project at a press conference, Manitoba Hydro still hasn't signed a formal power purchase agreement to build the St. Joseph wind farm. The project just got its environmental licence last month, though, and Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk said she's confident it's a go.

Meanwhile, there are nine wind farms totalling nearly 1,100 megawatts that have been shelved, even though they got their environmental licences and landowner approvals years ago and are almost shovel ready.

Hydro has traditionally been no fan of wind power -- saying it's inconsistent, tricky to put on the grid and costs more than water power generated from dams built a generation ago.

That's why critics say it takes an unequivocal signal from government -- a mandate, legislation, a ministerial order -- to force the Crown power company to get serious about wind. The Manitoba government has relied more on backroom cajoling to get Hydro to move on key issues.

"There's frustration with the process -- what criteria they're looking for, what price Hydro is willing to pay," said Tory MLA Cliff Cullen, the party's Hydro critic. "What we need is a framework to provide a catalyst for development."

Ontario has a new green-energy policy called a feed-in tariff that threatens to suck all the wind out of Manitoba. It's a guaranteed, set price -- 13.5 cents per kilowatt hour -- the province of Ontario will pay for wind power. Any company that can link to the grid, get environmental approvals and a contract with the power company will earn that price, a healthy one.

The first round of proposals are due at the end of the month, and Rangooni said Ontario could see hundreds of megawatts of power under construction in very short order.

Ontario has also dramatically streamlined the municipal and environmental licensing and approval process, creating a kind of one-stop-shop system that takes about six months, start to finish.

The open-door system stands in stark contrast to Manitoba, where companies spend years and big money developing bids, only to get rejected during Manitoba Hydro's plodding Request For Proposal (RFP) process.

But Wowchuk, who is in charge of Manitoba Hydro, said it's not fair to compare Manitoba to Ontario, since our province already relies almost exclusively on renewable energy but Ontario is powered largely by dirty coal.

And, she said, Manitoba is blessed with cheap power, meaning ratepayers would take a hit if the province threw open its doors to wind power like Ontario has done.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

 

Gone with the wind -- projects in limbo

Dominion City Wind Energy Project:

Proposed by Ontario-based Aim PowerGen Corp., the project would see 66 turbines located in the Rural Municipality of Franklin.

99 megawatts, approved in 2007

Oakland Wind Energy Project:

Also by Aim PowerGen, the project would see 66 turbines installed just south of Brandon.

99 megawatts, approved in 2007

Yellowhead Wind Energy Project:

Proposed by Greenwing Energy Development, the same company that built the St. Leon wind farm, this one would have between 50 and 70 wind turbines pumping near Minnedosa.

99 megawatts, approved in 2007

Reston Wind Energy Project:

Also by Greenwing, between 40 and 70 turbines were slated to go up north of Melita.

99 megawatts, approved in 2007

Mountain Winds Energy Project:

PPM Energy, now part of Portland-based Iberdrola Renewables, wants to build 200 turbines near Treherne.

300 megawatts, approved in 2007

Dacotah Wind Energy Project:

Manitoba-based Sequoia Energy Inc. wants to build a wind farm near Elie, just west of Winnipeg.

99 megawatts, approved in 2006

Meridan Wind Energy Project:

Also by Sequoia, this one would see as many as 70 turbines near Altona.

99 megawatts, approved 2007

Killarney Wind Energy Project:

Also by Sequoia, this one would see up to 70 wind turbines installed south of Killarney.

99 megawatts, approved in 2006

Pembina Hills Wind Energy Project:

Sequoia and Bison Wind want to install as many as 70 turbines northwest of Morden near Deerwood.

99 megawatts, approved in 2006

-- Source: Manitoba Conservation Environmental Assessment and Licensing Branch

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 14, 2009 A3

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23 Commentscomment icon

It's no surprise that 'Big Wind' as an industry is leaving Manitoba for other regions. The single greatest challenge for wind power in Manitoba is the artificially low cost of grid-tied energy. Manitoba Hydro, a crown corporation, takes its profit from electricity sales to the U.S. and uses it to reduce the cost of domestic energy. This arrangement is great for individuals and businesses, and has resulted in migration of energy intensive industries to Manitoba which is a boom for the economy. The Manitoba Government has been very active in promoting wind energy.

As we see it, there are two problems with this artificially low cost of electricity. First is the difficulty low revenue creates for Manitoba Hydro. As a recent whistle-blower report has suggested, Manitoba Hydro has not properly priced in future risk, basically meaning prices need to go up. The second problem low cost of energy creates is dis-incentive for independent energy generators to sell energy into Manitoba's energy grid because of the rock-bottom price you'll get for the effort. It is for these reasons 'Big Wind' is taking their business elsewhere.

If this is the model Manitoba Hydro will continue to use then offer more incentives to Manitobans for to self invest into their own personal energy generation, i.e. wind generators, solar panels, etc.

I don't agree with the decision to not build wind. As we are learning the executive management are "behind the times" and are leaving the Province in the bunker.

Its time to get some new managers into make some forward thinking decisions. With all the allegations of mismanagement it doesn't surprise me to read yet another article talking about failures in the NDP run utility.

NDP government don't know how to make decisions.

"That's why critics say it takes an unequivocal signal from government -- a mandate, legislation, a ministerial order -- to force the Crown power company to get serious about wind. The Manitoba government has relied more on backroom cajoling to get Hydro to move on key issues."

Come on "critics" (AKA MB Conservative Party esp. MLA Cliff Cullen) act like your name sake and do not encourage playing with the market, albeit a largely government controlled one. Let the wind farm people figure out a way to get their costs low enough to compete with existing hydro infrastructure. And don't let the heartstring pullers tell you that there isn't a way, as long as there is demand there always is. But if "Denmark, Hungary and Poland" are a more attractive market for them, let them go.

Not even slightly suprised to see this story. Babcock & Brown was bankrupt when the NDP gave them the contract. Huge error by the NDP proving they do not understand business.

Since this province already generates 98% of its electricity by water and has several thousand MW undeveloped on the Nelson River system alone, Manitoba Hydro is doing the right thing by abandoning any further attempts to subsidize wind farms because that's exactly what they require to keep them going. Just look at the American experience with wind. Even after three decades of incentives and mandates in at least a dozen states that power companies must derive a certain amount of electricity from renewable sources, the US still gets less than 1% of its energy from wind. In addition, institutes like Scotland's David Hume, America's Beacon Hill and Cato point out that wind power (a) is currently twice as expensive to produce as the cheapest alternative conventional source, (b) has attracted little demand from consumers who shy away from its higher costs and (c) has economic costs that usually exceed its benefits. In addition, the environmentalists themselves can't make up their minds about it. On the one hand they laud it as an important alternative to fossil fuels; on the other, they claim it's a threat to wildlife besides being noisy eyesores. that occupy too much land. So Manitoba should continue steering clear of wind, and if it needs a reliable alternative system, should construct at least one nuclear plant.

I don't agree with the Hydro strategy to abort so many wind opportunities. Once again the government is not thinking properly about the future in green energy sources and is falling behind.

No matter what rates will go up.

Its time to bring in some youthful (and not past retirement) executives, who are going to start making some responsible decisions.

Wowchuk doesn't understand the hit the Province will take if Hydro closes its doors to green energy.

More mismanagement by an embarrassing electric company.

If interest has fizzled because we have abundant hydroelectric power up north, why commit to wind technology in the first place? Typical lack of foresight on the part of government at all levels. On the other hand, however, in the event of power outages, we're told should disconnect unnecessary loads like stoves, air conditioning, clothes dryers and even small appliances or excessive lighting so as the grid goes back up, it doesn't crash again from all the connected load. Would it not be possible for defined small areas to be automatically disconnected from the grid and the load transferred to nearby wind farms to meet the needs of those small areas until the network stabilizes, at which time the small areas would be re-connected to the grid and power from wind farms transferred to feed the grid? May not warrant wholesale expansion of the wind farm program due to the power cost that has been described, but it seems to me to warrant maintaining existing wind farms rather than letting them deteriorate and end up scrapped.

Everyone seems to for get it's "Manitoba Government Hydro"

Fossil fuels are not categorically "bad". They could be used by civilization for millenia but by a much smaller stable population. This issue is a numbers game after all.
"Renewable" energy is not necessarily "good". First a lot of fossil fuels are used to create and maintain these installations. Second, they deliver a part-time yield from a long-term investment. And they are subsidized in various ways, but especially by government from taxation revenues with as much as 25% of revenues retained for administration. Compounding ineffeciencies are no way to solve the problem of deleterious effects of technology.
So much for the good and evil spirits in the 21st century.
Too bad so very few people with an opinion on the deleterious effects of tech have not seriously studied thermodynamics. Too many wind bags reciting poetry for self-pleasing effect.

It makes a lot more sense to develop hydro power to it's maximum in the province before ever committing too heavily to the wind power scheme. No doubt in order to break even because they operate on intermittent wind availability they have to get a rate that is probably well above the cost of Manitoba Hydro generating the same kwhrs from water power. Perhaps double. It would only make sense at present in peak times or as a surplus that could be marketed elsewhere. Are you willing to subsidize these installations on your electrical rates if they are not self sustaining? Not likely

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