Northwest Caledon Wind Turbine
Funding for this current project has come from, so far, Membership fees, the Ontario Ministry of Energy, the Ontario Trillium Fund, and the Community Power fund.
Windy Hills is currently studying the feasibility of deploying a 2 to10 Megawatt Wind project (1 to 5 turbines) in North West Caledon. Our full area of study is bound by Hwy#24 on the south, Regional Rd #136 on the West, 25th Side road and Highpoint side road on the North and Kennedy Rd on the East.
The location is ideal because it:
- Represents the highest elevated area in Caledon providing access to Caledon’s best overall Wind resources. As a result this site maximizes the probability that the project will be economically viable, given revenue opportunities from the Ontario government’s Standard Offer programme and the Federal Governments Eco Energy incentive programme.
- Is feasible to connect practically to the electrical grid to deliver the power produced by the project.
- Is in both the Greenbelt and Niagara escarpment areas that have restricted development and property use guidelines. Wind Energy Generation is one of the permitted uses in this area allowing a new and needed source of income for farmers and other property owners within the area.
- There are many geographic locations within our area of study that will allow us to place turbines at a minimum of 500 meters (the town of Caledon’s new set-back requirement established in July of 2008) from existing or future residences and businesses.
Windy Hills members having been studying the feasibility of this area since early 2005. A wind study in the area that collected 12 months of data occurred between June 2006 and May of 2007. This comprehensive study has confirmed that a wind resource that should make the project financially viable exists within the area.
Windy Hills also applied to Hydro One networks to reserve the energy production space that is required. As of September 2008 it was confirmed that Windy Hills now has the ability to connect within our area of study and the 10 Megawatts of space that we have on reserve is that last space that Hydro One will have for the foreseeable future within the study area.
We are in the process of final negotiations now with landowners to secure the small amount of land that we will need to deploy the turbines. Once this is completed we will be in a position to complete our feasibility studies.
What’s left to do then?
Once we have solidified our property agreements we will continue with our Environmental Assessment duties that were started in the spring of 2007. We must ensure that the project does not interfere inappropriately with the natural habitat of the area. This includes the study of Birds, Bats and other wildlife. It also insures that we will not disrupt the natural ecosystems of the area including wetlands, woodlots and vegetation.
We also need to conduct a modeled noise study that will report specific noise levels at various residential and business receptor locations, generated by the rotation of the wind turbines. There is a minimum noise standard that we must maintain under all conditions in order to for the project to gain environmental approval.
During our EA studies we will also apply for a Standard Offer 20 year contract from the Ontario Power Authority (OPA). Once a contract is obtained Windy Hills will be guaranteed income for every bit of energy produced by the project for the first 20 years of its operation.
Concurrently, we need to work with Hydro One to develop the cost model for connecting our project to their system. This could be a minor or major expense and depends on many complex conditions that exist within the part of the network where we are connecting.
Once we have all of this information, we will be in a position to know, within a reasonable margin of error, if our project is both environmentally and financially feasible.
Should it be feasible, Windy Hills will seed the development of a community based “for-profit” co-operative that will be responsible for capitalizing, constructing and operating the project.
Should it not be feasible, we plan to study options for developing another type of sustainable energy project, using a different type of technology, within the same study area.