Seeing the wind

The Ottawa Citizen
February 23, 2010

Seeing the wind

Wind power is sneaking up on Ontario in a way we haven't seen before, and by and large this is something to be celebrated -- except the price.

First, the benefits: Wind power is terrific because it is clean energy, producing no emissions. Across the province, wind turbines are sprouting up. They stand through the cornfields along Highway 21, which runs along the shore of Lake Huron, looking west across 50 to 100 kilometres of water between Ontario and Michigan. More look out over Lake Erie, and a few at Lake Ontario.

Now comes welcome news that Trillium Power Wind of Toronto wants to install hundreds of Danish turbines offshore, in the waters of the Great Lakes. The first phase of the project would have up to 140 turbines in a shallow area of Lake Ontario, 17 kilometres offshore from Prince Edward County.

Despite the clamouring for clean energy sources, wind power sometimes provokes concern from people who worry that the turbines, standing more than 100 metres tall, are an aesthetic blight on the landscape. But 17 kilometres offshore? Bring them on. Indeed, Ontario's wind turbines already are in places where most people never see them.

For the first time, wind would give Ontario truly significant amounts of electricity. If all four phases of the plan go ahead, 740 turbines would supply up to 3,700 megawatts of power under the right wind conditions. (That needs a footnote; on average, Canadian wind projects supply about 33 per cent of their rated capacity over the course of a year.)

A capacity of 3,700 megawatts is worth Ontario's interest. To put that in perspective, it's a whisker more than the maximum output of our biggest nuclear station, Darlington, which provides 20 per cent of Ontario's power. It's enough to supply a city of two million people on a windy day, especially in winter, which is when wind supplies are best.

Wind power has never been this big in Canada. And the Great Lakes are a superb site, getting the maximum wind exposure without building towers in people's backyards.

The sticking point is money. Ontario is offering a long-term price of 19 cents a kilowatt hour for offshore turbines, or 13.5 cents for new ones on land.

Is it worth doing? Think of it this way. The launch of a wave of new wind farms in Ontario will create long-term opportunities for manufacturers to supply them -- and replace some of the jobs that the auto industry can no longer provide. There was a time when the Seaway carried iron ore and car parts. As demand for that traditional cargo falls, perhaps the same waters could supply jobs from energy.

The alternatives include clean coal and nuclear. But Ontario learned last summer that a new nuclear plant would be hugely expensive ($26 billion), and eventually both coal and natural gas will run into carbon taxes that are still uncertain today. Energy needs to be planned in the long run.

It's a shaky prediction to believe in green jobs before they're created, but wind has proven that it can produce power on a commercial scale, and it's worth our investment. Wind power by itself is not the answer to Ontario's consumption needs, but it surely needs to be, as they say, part of the energy mix.