Energizing Canada's Wind Industry

2008-10-14

Canada's wide open spaces are the perfect stage for the power of wind, that clean, green energy that the sky is giving out for free.  But for all of its gifts, experts say Canada is lagging in the global push toward wind power.

"I think Canada was a bit late in realizing what an opportunity it presented," says Sean Whittaker, vice-president of policy for the not-for-profit Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA).

CanWEA aims to encourage investment in 10,000 MW of wind capacity by 2010, providing five per cent of Canada's electricity—compare that to Denmark, which already gets 22 per cent of its energy from wind, and Germany and Spain, which each get eight per cent of their electricity from wind power.

Whittaker says 15 to 20 per cent of electricity can be generated by wind without having any adverse effects on the existing grid. Canada can become a leader in wind power, he says, but first the country needs a wind energy strategy. His agency advocates making wind an important part of Canada's electricity mix, recognizing that this country "is very gifted in terms of resource potential and ability to integrate wind."

Whittaker cites figures from the Global Wind Energy Council estimating that between now and 2020, anywhere from $800 billion to $1 trillion will be invested in the wind industry. Those investors are looking for a stable, long-term policy environment.

But first there are the challenges, says Morel Oprisan, the deputy director of renewable energy technologies with Canada’s department of Natural Resources (NRCan).

In the past few years, Oprisan says, Canada's installed wind energy has grown tremendously. Currently, Canada stands at close to 2,000 MW.

Oprisan cites the "not in my backyard" attitudes among communities, who stall developments with worries about noise and obstruction. Deeper, there is the fact that turbines are only as good as the wind in the area they're staged. Regulations are another key factor; energy remains a provincial matter and every province has its own set of regulations.

"This is where it's very important," Oprisan says. "The kind of work we've been doing together with the industry in getting national standards in place to make sure there's the same consistency in installing wind turbines across the country."

For the past three years, NRCan has been working with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) as well as the Standards Council of Canada. Canada is now a full member of the International Electrotechnical Commission’s committee (IEC/TC 88), where the international standards for wind turbines are being created. The standards cover topics ranging from design requirements (IEC 61400-1) to noise measurement techniques (IEC 61400-11) to the measurement of power performance (IEC 61400-12-1).

Eventually adoptions of these standards are likely to be put forward for approval by the Standards Council of Canada as national standards.

The national standards will cover a range of issues, such as turbine performance, turbine safety, and grid connections to the power utility. Oprisan says most of these standards will be issued this year. As with all standards, they are voluntary at this stage. The marketplace is critical in making them work, he says, and the power utilities are active in the standards committee developing them.

Whittaker also looks toward industry standardization as a hopeful step in realizing wind's potential.

"Standards are often overlooked as being incredibly important for growth in any industry," he says. "And it's something that we take very seriously—from wind assessment, to developing standard municipal policies, component manufacturing and finally grid integration, standards play a vital role."

Standards already have a hand in shaping wind power. SaskPower's Cypress Wind Power Facility became the first electric utility in Canada to be certified to the International Organization for Standardization’s environmental management standard, ISO 14001. It's meant a range of benefits: increased confidence that environmental risks are managed; better trained and more effective deployment of staff; improved efficiency of operations; and increased credibility with regulators and customers. Meanwhile, Turbowinds Canada Inc. complies with ISO 9001 quality standards for its enterprise that designs and manufactures wind and pumping turbines.

Beyond industry, standards also stand to empower communities with economic, social and environmental benefits. Whittaker says that potential is particularly great for transforming rural communities.

"We see 'wind', by its characterization as more of a rural facet for development—you need fairly open land areas to accommodate wind energy development," Whittaker says. "And what we find in a lot of cases is that in the end the development of wind farms is a real shot in the arm for rural communities. The municipal tax base goes up, so that kind of economic diversification is really important to rural communities, particularly when a lot of resource-based industries are in decline."

Whittaker is hopeful wind will usher in smarter, more sustainable communities.

"We've got a long way to go," he says, "But Canada's wind potential is one of the best in the world."

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This article first appeared in Volume 35 of CONSENSUS Magazine, 2008.  The information it contains was accurate at the time of publication but has not been updated or revised since, and may not reflect the latest updates on the topic.  If you have specific questions or concerns about the content, please contact the Standards Council of Canada.

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