Jason Unrau
Northern News Services
Friday, January 26, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The viability of wind-generated electricity in the North was a topic for discussion at Ecology North's Climate Change Leadership Summit in Yellowknife last week.

While the technology has generally shown positive results, past negligible performances in the North have cast a shadow over employing wind-turbines, say proponents.

"The power corporation came to the table with a preconceived notion that wind-generated electricity sucks," said Inuvik Mayor Derek Lindsay, who was in town for the conference.

However, issues such as parts availability and having to fly in qualified technicians plagued past Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) attempts at employing the technology.

But in the summer of 2005, the power corporation and Aurora Research Institute in Inuvik began conducting another study on the viability wind-generated electricity, establishing monitoring stations in Holman, Sachs Harbour, Inuvik and Paulatuk. Wind monitoring was also initiated at the Jackfish Lake power plant in Yellowknife.

According to Emery Paquin, director of environmental protection at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, preliminary results indicate the wind regime in Yellowknife is "marginal" while the Beaufort region's is somewhat better. Wind regime is a combination of wind speed and its consistency over a period of time.

"The next step is to do a feasibility study, look at wind regime and apply it to the technology that's available," said Paquin, adding the department is "pleased with policy signals" from the federal government with respect to the Conservative pledge to invest $1.5 billion over the next 10 years on renewable energy technologies.

"But implementation details are unknown so we really have to wait to see how these federal programs are going to roll out (and) make sure they are useful and applicable in the North," he said.

The power corporation first began looking at the alternative power source in 1985 when it installed a turbine in Cambridge Bay. With the help of federal government financing, several communities followed suit, including Sachs Harbour, Rankin Inlet and Kugluktuk.

Today, Rankin Inlet's turbine is the only one still functioning; the others fell victim to high winds and lightning.

At 50 kilowatts, Rankin Inlet's $300,000 turbine requires $10,000 of annual maintenance and upkeep.

On the flip side, it generates 189,000 kilowatts of electricity each year, displacing 40,000 litres of diesel fuel - that translates into a reduction of 185 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Regardless of Rankin Inlet's successes and those who believe that wind could one day take the place of diesel generators altogether, NTPC president Leon Courneya said remote locations, lack of qualified service technicians and severe temperatures likely mean diesel technology will still be used in some places.

"It's not like the electrician could drive an hour down the road to service something in Sachs Harbour," he said.

"And you still don't do away with diesel power. Even our plants with natural gas always have a diesel backup.

From an economics point of view, the savings would come from the diesel you wouldn't need to use."