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Prince Edward County, Ontario [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] A new challenger has thrown its hat in the ring to be the first offshore wind project in North America. If the plan goes through, it could also be the largest single wind project on the continent.
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2 of 15 |
June 7, 2006
The problem with the Great Lakes wind is more NIMBYism. There's no reason why the Great Lakes, with its fabulous wind resources, should not be the center of a revitalized North American grid pumping out gigawatts of clean, wind-powered electricity...apart from NIMBYism, of course.
Michael http://blog.theopinonator.com |
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3 of 15 |
June 7, 2006
You still get email and telephone contact information on the main login page, so I'd hardly call it a 'dry hole' if you want contact info.
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4 of 15 |
June 7, 2006
Trillium Power's website hotlink is 'private' and required an ID and password for sign-in. Suggest dropping the hotlink to contact them, as it turns up a 'dry hole.'
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5 of 15 |
June 7, 2006
Will Canada go ahead off USA with offshore
windpower? But in politic you newer now, but its good news for windpower and envirement, wildlife! kindly jens |
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6 of 15 |
June 7, 2006
I agree with Kerry Beauchrt on the fact that Ted Kennedy and the Gov. of Mass. are the ones responsible for holding back the Cape Cod wind project. I think they should be ashamed of themselves for letting the Canadians get ahead of us and should be kicked out of office for their flagrant use of political power. We don't need these politicians in office any longer.
adrianakau@aol.com |
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7 of 15 |
June 9, 2006
Location, location.... location. 34.27% capacity factor seems a little low for offfshore!
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8 of 15 |
June 9, 2006
According to the article, and based on:
The average U.S. household in 2001 used 10,656kWh (U.S. DOE), 200,000 homes seems to be based on a capacity factor of 34.27%, perhaps a tad optimstic, as the largest wind power installation feed-in in the world, E.ON Netz, reports a capacity factor of 18.37% (page 4 E.ON Netz Wind Report 2005) in the E.ON control area. That would lower the "homes served" to 107,220. Based on the largest wind power infeed company in the world, the German E.ON Netz Wind Report 2005 is illuminating the problems of feeding wind power into the hydro grid. The problems of feeding an independable power supply such as wind power or even solar into the hydro grid are multitudinous, as back up power for dependable electric power demand must always be available in case the wind stops or the clouds cover the sun. At the present, E.ON Netz reports a "capacity credit" or "Substitution Capacity" from wind power at 8% of the total installed wind power capacity. As more wind power capacity gets installed by 2020, the "capacity credit" or "Substitution Capacity" from wind power will fall to below 4% (page 9, E.ON Netz Wind Report 2005). It is interesting to read this report, Here is a smaller URL that is not broken through browser rapping: http://tinyurl.com/423wd Once on this page, click on "Download (PDF, 1 MB)" Another optimistic report, "The Ontario Reliability Outlook", is published by The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/pubs/marketReports/ORO_Report-2006-1-1.pdf It states on Sec1:112 under an asterisc(*): "* For capacity planning purposes, wind generation has a dependable capacity contribution of 10% of the listed figures." This very much co-incides with the E.ON figures, as in the beginning of wind power capacity the feed in problems (into the hydro net) are not apparent yet and therefore stand at 10%. All this would mean that the installed 710MW name plate capacity would satisfy the electricity needs of 58,367 homes at 10% capacity contribution, or 46,694 homes at 8% capacity contribution, or 23,347 homes at 4% capacity contribution. A far cry from 200,000 or even 300,000 homes, as suggested above. Windpower Research |
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9 of 15 |
June 10, 2006
Lake Ontario has the best wind location. there is a tunnaling affect from the shore line.Pluss the prevaling westerlies. I believe would pay for its self in less than ten years.
Now if the USA would get it together and start putting some wind turbines in place. It may take some of the load off the hydro dams. I and then there would be less chances of power outages. |
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10 of 15 |
June 13, 2006
Thus, its full-year capacity factor is only 26% in 2004, while during the first four months of 2005, when the turbines were fully operational at
all times, the capacity factor reached just over 53%. Given that 2004 was considered an average windspeed year for the Danish climate, long-term capacity factors can be expected at around 40% for Nysted and around 45% for Horns Rev, meeting or even exceeding initial expectations." Please see: http://www.iea.org/textbase/papers/2005/offshore.pdf for more info. Thanks, Patrick |
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11 of 15 |
June 13, 2006
The real capacity factors of offshore windfarms are more in the order of 40% and greater as demonstrated in the following excerpt from the International Energy Agency's report on Offshore Wind Experiences:
"Production data are available for the Nysted and Horns Rev wind farms in Denmark. In 2004 Nysted saw a capacity factor of just under 40% while production in the first four months of 2005 yielded a capacity factor of over 47%. Horns Rev saw major technology problems in 2004 resulting in unavailability of 30%-50% of the turbines throughout the year. |
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12 of 15 |
June 13, 2006
In response to Michael C's comments made about the reliability of wind power, it should be noted that the corporation E.ON is also the owner of Europe's largest private nuclear operation and also generates two-thirds of its electricity from coal-fired facilities. It just so happens that a subsidary of E.ON, E.ON Netz also distributes electricity. Most of E.ON's revenue would be generated through the production of power and not its transmission. It should also be noted that at the time of this report, the German government had comitted to shutting down its nuclear power facilities and reducing its coal fired capacity to meet kyoto requirements. This would therefore put E.ON in direct competition with wind power (which the company does not own any of) and would therefore cause them to produce a report which spins wind power in a negative manner.
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13 of 15 |
June 16, 2006
In response to Patrick Andres, June 13, 2006 Quote: “E.ON in direct competition with wind power (which the company does not own any of)â€, this is to set the record straight about E.ONs ownership of 32 “Wind Farms†of 308 MW Name Plate Capacity in Central Europe, UK and Nordic in this document:
http://www.eon.com/en/downloads/Erneuerbare_Energien_en.pdf It would therefore not be in their interest to give wind power a negative spin. |
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14 of 15 |
August 25, 2006
The Ontario offshore windfarm is estimated to provide enough electricity to serve the annual needs of over 200,000 homes. The "dependable capacity contribution" to meeting peak demand for "capacity planning purposes" is the amount of electric generation capacity operating at the time the electric system reaches its peak demand for electricity during the year (this is time sensitive concurrent electric generation produced to serve the peak electric consumption).
The estimates of windpower capacity contribution for planning purposes ranging from 10% down to 4% do not mean that less electricity would be produced annually; only that a much smaller amount of the installed windpower capacity can be counted on to produce electricity at the time the electric grid is experiencing its annual peak demand for electricity. However, this cannot be considered a "guideline". Taking information developed from one location and applying it to another can be grossly misleading. |
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15 of 15 |
September 12, 2006
"Windpower Research" provided an incorrect calculation of the average annual capacity factor of wind in Germany using Eon Netz data. The calculation relies on year-end capacity but annual energy. Using the average annual capacity (year end minus beginning)/2, I calculate the productivity at 19.1% (still very disappointing).
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calculations indicate that almost 300,000
homes could be supplied with all their electricity.
I'm surprised I haven't heard of any US offshore projects planned for the Great Lakes.
The article overstates the opposition of US planned offshore sites on the Atlantic Ocean.
Almost all of that political opposition came from two guys - Teddy the bleary-eyed severely overweight connoiseur of the finer things in life, both living and fermented, and his political stooge, the Gov of Mass.