Wind Power Paying Off

By Ian John Harvey

To thousands of commuters driving by on the Gardiner Expressway, the giant three-bladed propeller lazily turning on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds is a curiosity.

To the 427 investors who collectively ponied up $800,000, it's the wave of the future and starting in January they'll begin reaping a return on their investment in Toronto's first wind turbine project, Windshare.

The 750-megawatt generator has been up and running for two years and proudly bills itself as the North America's first urban wind turbine. David Timm, project manager of  the Windshare Co-operative, says  the giant white machine is now running smoothly after some start-up teething issues  - including the bankruptcy of the manufacturer.

The plan is coming together, however, and is about to pay "distributions"  - cash - to the original investors who bought 8,000 shares in the project, he said.

"There's Annual General Meeting in late January and at that time we will announce what the distributions will be," he said. "So far we've sold about 1.8 Gigawatthours to the Ontario grid - enough to power about 200 to 250 houses a year."

The prototype project was also supported by funds from the city of Toronto and other government agencies.

"We've been successful, despite an interesting year in which the manufacturer of the turbine went bankrupt," Timm said. Windshare weathered that storm and gleaned important learning from their first project to apply to their second turbine which it is hoped will be built at Ashbridge's Bay in the city's east end.

"We're still in discussions, so nothing is final, but that's the site we're looking at," Timm said.

The energy produced by the turbine is nowhere near enough to feed a power hungry city like Toronto, but to proponents demonstrates wind power is a both a viable energy source and a financially sound investment in the future.

Supporters of wind-generated energy say the financial return is only a part of the benefits because the process burns no fuel and produces no pollution unlike fossil fuel or nuclear generating plants. With oil hitting US$50 a barrel, it's also perhaps an idea whose time has come, they say.

In fact, said Timm, already 200 people have put up $300,000 into a trust fund to help finance the second project -  even though it's not officially on the books yet.

Murray Paterson, business development manager of OPG-Evergreen, which has its own bigger, 1.8 Megawatt generator at the Pickering lakefront says it too is running well and feeding power into the grid.

"We had some teething pains as well but you'd expect that with new technology," he said adding the lessons learned were invaluable when setting up five 1.8 Megawatt turbines on the shore of Lake Huron near Kincardine this year.

But for all the apparent success, Paterson says, wind power will likely always play a supporting role in Ontario generations.

"We just don't have the wind," he said. "We get about 30% from our locations whereas in the prairies, Saskatchewan is getting about 40% capacity. Even 1% different in wind power is huge."

While environmentalists would like to see a wholesale shift towards renewable energy-based power generation, the reality is that neither the technology nor the geography of Toronto may lend itself to that solution.

Paterson said points of high land are prime locations and coastal areas like Newfoundland have huge capacity for wind generation.

"The technology is improving, they're getting bigger and lighter which means they can put them on higher towers to get better wind," he said.

And despite OPG-Evergreen's apparent success in developing wind energy, the Ontario government has announced it wants the private sector to take the technology to the next level. It issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) and has received "substantial" response Paterson said.

"We don't know what the costs are going to be and they'll probably make a decision when Bill 100 is passed later this fall," he said.

Bill 100, the Electricity Restructuring Act, was introduced last summer and  proposes to establish a new Ontario Power Authority (OPA), mandated to ensure an adequate, long-term supply of electricity, a Conservation Bureau led a Chief Energy Conservation Officer, targets for conservation, renewable energy, and the overall supply mix of electricity in the province; A redefined the role of theIndependent Electricity Market Operator (IMO and a new name - the Independent Electricity System Operator.
At the same time the government proposes incentives for more private investment in new generation, regulated and adjusted prices to ensure price stability for consumers.
All players in the power game are watching the development of Bill 100 because it will dramatically change the rules and set out what incentives might be offered for alternatives such as wind power and what prices small operators might get for their power when selling to the grid.
If the market stabilizes and incentives prove attractive, more wind turbine towers could start sprouting across the province - no longer a curiosity but part of the changing landscape.