Basics of wind energy, environmental permitting and the industry in Quebec and

CanadaPresented by: Keshav Letourneau B.Sc., DEIA

April 2013

Wind

• Wind is caused by differences in atmospheric pressure.

• The uneven heating, due by the different types of surfaces over the earth and the rotation of the earth helps produce atmospheric variations.

• Wind will blow from a high atmospheric pressure area to a low atmospheric pressure area ( Source: Wikipedia).

Energy in the Wind• Anything that moves generates kinetic energy

• When the wind turns the rotor of a wind turbine, it turns a generator (dynamo) which makes electricity.

Wind Turbine Generators (WTG)

• Modern wind turbines are horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT)

• Vertical axis turbines have been experimented with but still have some limitations for industrial use.

• Modern WTG use steel or cement cylindrical towers instead of lattice towers.

WTG cont.• A WTG is composed of the foundation, tower, nacelle, rotor and hub

http://www.ecoinc.info/representative-projects/usace-wind-turbine

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Size_comparison_child_in_wind_turbine_rotor_hub_without_blades_%28enercon_e-70%29.jpg

A look inside the nacelle of a wind turbines

Source:http://www.thenewecologist.com/2010/04/a-look-inside-the-wind-turbine/

Source: http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/engineer/facts/03-047.htm

• The rotor is composed of three blades

• Onshore turbines are typically smaller than offshore turbines.

• Onshore turbines have a name plate capacity ranging from 1.5 – 7.5 MW , with a hub height (HH) varying from 80 m to ≈ 130 m and a rotor diameter (RD) varying from 80 m to 126 m.

• Offshore turbines have a name plate capacity ranging from 2 MW to 6 MW, with HH ranging from 85 to over 100 m and RD ranging from 112 m to 154 m) (prototypes up to 15 MW)

Source: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Accelerating-Wind-Power-and-Wind-Power-Jobs

• Rotor speed vary between 6 to 19 rpm depending on models

• Tip speeds range between 25 m/s to 80 m/s

• Start up 2.5 m/s, shut down 25 m/s (28 – 34 m/s)

WTG cont.

Wind Farms

• A wind farm consists of more than 2 wind turbines being connected to the same project substation.

• The project substation is connected to a distribution line or transmission line, depending on the size of the project.

• The energy produced by each wind energy converter (WEC) is transported to a project substation.

Interconnecting the Wind Farm

http://www.hydro.com.au/energy/about-wind-power

From the project substation the energy is placed onto the local grid.

Once the electrons are on the grid the grid operator can send these electrons to anywhere within the interconnected grid, with some restrictions.

Wind Farms cont.

• The world's largest wind farm, located in Texas, consists of 421 turbines producing 735 Megawatts of electricity. The turbines cover nearly 47,000 acres (190 km²) of land. (source: wikipedia)

• Quebec’s largest planned wind farm is the Seigneurie de Beaupré, it will be built in 3 phases, when finished being built in 2015 it will have an installed capacity of 366 MW. This at this time the largest planned wind farm in Canada. The project closed a financing deal of 725 m dollars to build the project.

• What causes the intermittency?

• Since the wind does not blow constantly, the wind farm, as well as the wind turbines within the wind farm do not produce energy at a constant level for a specific period of time.

• Unlike traditional electricity generating facilities that grid operators are used to working with, wind farms are less predictable in their ability to provide the required energy to the grid operator when they need it. i.e. a nuclear plant once it is online, it will very rarely be stopped and the energy from the nuclear plant must be bought by the grid operator at the contracted price.

• The main practice we observe presently in most jurisdictions , is that grid operators are curtailing wind farms when they have a surplus of energy. In other words when the wind is blowing and the wind farm is producing energy, but there is no demand for this energy the grid operator asks the wind farm operator to disconnect it’s wind farm from the grid.

• This does allow some flexibility in the way the electrons are managed on the grid, since more conventional forms of energy production can not be curtailed as simply as wind can be. i.e. Gas turbine take 12 hours to ramp down and ramp up, nuclear reactors take much longer due to specific safety considerations that must be taken into account, hydro can respond much quicker but due to certain permitting restrictions they can not be ramped down.

• Therefore in cases where there is a surplus of energy wind farms can make it easier for grid operators to manage this excess energy. Of course there needs to be a respected threshold of how much a specific wind farm can be curtailed before it suffers economically.

Intermittency issue

Intermittency issue cont.• Geographical disposition helps reduce the intermittency issue

• Studies performed by Graham Sinden (2009) suggest that, in practice, the variations in thousands of wind turbines, spread out over several different sites and wind regimes, are smoothed. As the distance between sites increases, the correlation between wind speeds measured at those sites, decreases.

• Geographical dispersed wind farms allow for greater predictability

• Thus, while the output from a single turbine can vary greatly and rapidly as local wind speeds vary, as more turbines are connected over larger and larger areas the average power output becomes less variable and more predictable.[97]

• Wind speeds can be accurately forecast over large areas, and hence wind is a predictable source of power for feeding into an electrical grid. However, due to the variability, although predictable, wind energy availability must be scheduled. (Source: wikipedia)

• Wind turbines are very reliable over 90% reliability (some manufacturers have data showing from past experience as high as 98% availability)

• Wind power hardly ever suffers major technical failures, since failures of individual wind turbines have hardly any effect on overall power, so that the distributed wind power is highly reliable and predictable,[98] whereas conventional generators, while far less variable, can suffer major unpredictable outages (Source: wikipedia)

• Founded in 2001 by Guy Painchaud (founder of retscreen, Founded internationaly renowned wind engineering company GPCo in 1994, recognized internationally for his expertise and contributions in the wind industry)

• Develop projects in Canada & Mexico

• In Quebec (Canada), Eolectric has developed 9 projects with Hydro-Quebec PPA

• Eolectric has developed approximately 31% of the projects selected by Hydro-Quebec in the last three RFP’s for 3,500 MW.

• 1087 MW of contracted wind project over the past 10 years:

• Its multidisciplinary team ― composed of engineers, project managers, finance specialists and environmental experts ― allows the firm to effectively manage all aspects of the wind development process.

VDK Wind Farm

• The Vents du Kempt WF is a 100 MW wind farm located in The Matapedia Valley, Quebec

• VDK will install 43 Enercon turbines - E 82 2.3 MW turbine model– with a HH of 98 m – having a rotor swept area of 5 281 m2 – the project cost is aprox. 340 m.

• Project surface area is 35 sq km, actual footprint under 7%. Only 0.86% of the vegetation cover found within the project area will be impacted, minimizing potential habitat loss.

• VDK- started construction activities in 2013, The VDK team has a 18 month construction schedule to respect – 1st stage consisted of preparing the site for the construction of the roads and foundation, site

preparation activities started in 2012 – 2nd stage is underway and consists of the construction of the access roads and improvements to the

roads that will be used to access the site and the construction of the foundations – 3rd stage will consists of erecting the turbines in 2014, the contracted ISD with HQ is December 1st 2014.

• VDK will produce enough energy to power more than 10,000 homes.

• The project will create 150 positions during construction and 10 positions during operation.

• Land use • Sound • Visual • Flora & fauna • Birds and bats, •Telecommunications • Soil erosion and water quality •Shadow/Flicker

Environmental impacts and mitigation measures

• Environmental impacts in comparison to other sources of energy generation projects in general are considerably less.

• We are still required to obtain many permits from municipal, regional, provincial and federal government agencies.

• These permitting requirements require us to perform many studies, an impact assessment is performed for the following purposes;

Environmental impacts and mitigation measures cont.

• All studies are reviewed by public and government agencies. If studies prove no significant impact, the project is approved and can move forward to the construction stage.

• Mitigation measures include reducing lighting on turbines, synchronous flashing of lights on turbines, modulating turbines, reducing turbine blade speed (smearing effect – old turbines) no siting zones, respecting prescribed set backs from certain areas (specific nesting conditions, urban perimeters, visual zones)

• Monitoring periods during first years of operation are a typical obligation for wind farm operators in Canada.

Life cycle impact – cradle to death

• Siting is an important factor (peat bog, offshore, onshore)

• Material used in WTG (Cement tower, steel towers, material in blades, etc.)

• Energy used for production, installation, operation, decommissioning and disposal of WTG will vary and is also an important factor

• Energy balance: energy production - energy consumption: Vestas study show a return time of several months to recoup the energy used in the manufacturing, operation, transport, dismantling and disposal of their 2 MW & 3 MW turbine. (Source: http://www.wind-energy-the-facts.org/en/environment/chapter-1-environmental-benefits/energy-balance-analysis.html)

• Important factor that is not taken into account in the LCA is the use of water, the amount used in wind projects pales in comparison to other forms of energy.

• Return time can be very short (source)

Life cycle impact – cradle to death cont.

(Source: http://www.wind-energy-the-facts.org/en/environment/chapter-1-environmental-benefits/energy-balance-analysis.html)

The table below shows the Emissions of Relevant Pollutants Produced by Wind Electricity and Coal and Natural Gas Electricity Along the Whole Life Cycle, and Benefits of Wind versus Coal and Natural Gas

Life cycle impact – cradle to death cont.

• The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) from the US reviewed over 2,100 LCA publications, and harmonized the results

• Findings: GHG emission of published estimates ranged from 1.7 to 81 g CO2eq/kWh

• Harmonized results: 3.0 to 45 g CO2eq/kWh

Life cycle impact – cradle to death cont.

Source: http://en.openei.org/apps/LCA/

Future plans for wind energy development in Quebec & Canada

• Record year in 2011 with approximately 1,267 MW of new wind energy capacity added in Canada (Source: CanWEA 2012)

• Quebec goal: 4000 mw by 2015, reaching this goal will mean that almost 10% of the energy generation in QC will be from wind.

• High production of hydro allows high penetration of wind on Qc. Grid.

• Economics and energy work hand in hand, rise in economy means a rise in need of energy typically, present economic slow down has reduced need for new generation.

• Good for economic development, jobs, respects sustainable development principles

• Canada ended 2011 with a total of 5,265 MW - 2.3 per cent of Canada's total electricity demand.

• Presently in Canada there is 6500 MW of wind energy name plate capacity installed, enough to power over 2 million homes or equivalent to about 3 % of Canada’s total electricity demand

– Canada's wind energy industry is on pace to easily surpass 10,000 MW of total installed capacity by 2015

• In 2013, Ontario and Quebec will lead with new installations of clean wind energy. With various projects now contracted to be built across Canada, the country will see on average 1,500 MW of new wind energy installations commissioned annually for the next few years.

• Canada is expected to reach 12,000 MW of total installed capacity by 2016 and remains on track to meet CanWEA’s WindVision target of supplying 20 per cent of Canada’s electricity from wind energy by 2025.

• Canada’s massive hydroelectric resource, which provides 60% of Canada’s electricity, is an excellent complement for wind energy and provides an excellent opportunity to integrate more wind energy into the system than is the case in many other countries.

(Source: CanWEA)

Total installed capacity

Source: CanWEA

Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) 2025 Vision

• CanWEA wind vision 2025 – 20 % of wind integration into the Canadian grid

• Generating $79 billion of investment that will make Canada’s wind energy sector a real player in a $1.8 trillion global wind industry

• Creating at least 52,000 high quality, full-time jobs including many in rural communities

• Producing $165 million in new annual revenues for municipalities

• Adding 55,000 MW of clean generating capacity that will strengthen our electrical grids and head off potential power shortages

• Stabilizing electricity prices

• Cutting Canada’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by 17 Megatonnes (source: CanWEA)

World Market • 41,000 MW of new clean, reliable wind power in 2011 (Source:GWEC)

• 282,482 MW, a 18.7% increase on the 238,035 MW installed at the end of 2011 (Source: wikipedia)

• Several countries have achieved relatively high levels of wind power penetration, such as 21% of stationary electricity production in Denmark, 18% in Portugal, 16% in Spain, 14% in Ireland and 9% in Germany in 2010 (Source: wikipedia)

• At the end of 2012, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators was 282 gigawatts (GW), growing by 44 GW over the preceding year.[45] According to the World Wind Energy Association, an industry organization, in 2010 wind power generated 430 TWh or about 2.5% of worldwide electricity usage,[49] up from 1.5% in 2008 and 0.1% in 1997.[50] (GWEC)

• Wind energy is an established international industry

(Sourcec: Wikipedia and GWEC)

World Market cont.

Source: GWEC

• As of 2011, 83 countries around the world are using wind power on a commercial basis (Source: GWEC)

• Today, there are over 150,000 wind turbines operating around the world in over 90 countries (Source: CanWEA)

• Danish government adopted a plan to increase the share of electricity production from wind to 50% by 2020 (Source: Wikipedia)

Thank you

• Any questions?