Achieving 100% renewable energy is an aspiration that is more easily said than done, but in British Columbia such a future appears to be more achievable due to advances in wind energy technology. British Columbia, which has a reputation as a climate change leader, with the first carbon tax in North America, ranks lowest in terms of per capita wind power of all 10 Canadian provinces, in spite of abundant resources. To learn more about recent wind power developments, I decided to attend the event by the BCSEA and CANWEA in Downtown Vancouver on April 10th at the Bill Reid Gallery (named after the late indigenous artist who hailed from my former home of Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands).
Wind is Affordable
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| Wind turbines in Landskrona, Skane, Sweden on historic site. |
In the popular press, wind power is criticized as being a granola technology which cannot be expected to meet the energy demands of a modern industrialized society. In British Columbia, we are frankly spoiled rotten by the low electric prices due to the construction of hydro power on the Columbia and Peace River Systems. Thus, consumers have experience a shock as old infrastructure needs to be upgraded and electric bills must rise. Wind power appears a way to bring about a new era of environmentally friendly, low-cost power to British Columbia. CANWEA discusses similar ideas in their WindVision 2025 BC report
Because the hydro dams were built in the 1960s through the 1980s, the nominal (inflation unadjusted costs) were far lower than today. These assets are referred to as “heritage assets” due to their very low production costs. I was under the impression that the cost of wind energy would in the long-term lead to higher energy prices for British Columbians than an emphasis on hydro. While hydro, as even small hydro was more competitive than wind just a few years ago, improvement in wind technology, now makes wind competitive with new small and even large hydro in some cases. The improvements are based around the adoption of new wind turbine technologies which are designed to operate in lower wind environments. Clean Technica has a good discussion of the “stretch rotor” technologies. Today, wind under many circumstances will cost as much in real (inflation adjusted) terms as the hydro dams of the past at 10 cents per kilowatt hour. It was remarked by one of the speakers that new wind farms will become tomorrow’s heritage assets. Investing in wind makes far more sense than other renewable sources, particularly as it integratable and the problem of the wind isn’t blowing now is not a large issued Event incredible in BC.
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| Wind farms from my trip to Ireland |
Wind is reliable!
Analysis has shown that
British Columbia could operate 6000 MW or 2000 wind turbines worth of power,
without raising reliability issues. This
good fortune is based on two factors (1) British Columbia has extensive hydro reservoirs
which can act like storage batteries (2) Wind energy production is much greater
in the winter when BC’s electricity demand is highest.
And the answer is!
Bob Dylan was right after
all.
