Photo by Dirk Ingo Franke
Wind power is renewable and produces no greenhouse gases during operation, such as carbon dioxide and methane.
Ontario is moving forward with wind power development and the IESO plays a fundamental role in bringing many of these wind projects into service. The IESO recognizes wind as an important source of renewable energy and is committed to integration of new wind projects in a timely manner while continuing to meet reliability standards.
Numerous wind projects in Ontario are now operational. Additional projects under development are expected to be completed within the next couple of years.
Airflows can be used to run wind turbines. Modern wind turbines range from around 600 kW to 5 MW of rated power, although turbines with rated output of 1.5–3 MW have become the most common for commercial use; the power output of a turbine is a function of the cube of the wind speed, so as wind speed increases, power output increases dramatically.
Since wind speed is not constant, a wind farm's annual energy production is never as much as the sum of the generator nameplate ratings multiplied by the total hours in a year. The ratio of actual productivity in a year to this theoretical maximum is called the capacity factor. Typical capacity factors are 20-40%, with values at the upper end of the range in particularly favourable sites.
Globally, the long-term technical potential of wind energy is believed to be five times total current global energy production, or 40 times current electricity demand. This could require large amounts of land to be used for wind turbines, particularly in areas of higher wind resources. Offshore resources experience mean wind speeds of ~90% greater than that of land, so offshore resources could contribute substantially more energy. This number could also increase with higher altitude ground-based or airborne wind turbines.
| Name | Location | Capacity (MW) | Operational |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melancthon I (Amaranth) | Township of Melancthon | 67.5 | March 2006 |
| Kingsbridge I | Huron County | 39.6 | March 2006 |
| Erie Shores (Port Burwell) | Norfolk and Elgin Counties | 99 | May 2006 |
| Prince I | Sault Ste. Marie District | 99 | September 2006 |
| Prince II | Sault Ste. Marie District | 90 | November 2006 |
| Ripley | Township of Huron-Kinloss | 76 | December 2007 |
| Kruger (Port Alma) | Port Alma | 101.2 | October 2008 |
| Melancthon II (Amaranth) | Township of Melancthon | 132 | Q4 2008 |
| Enbridge (Underwood) | Bruce County | 181.5 | est. Q1 2009 |
| Wolfe Island | Township of Frontenac Islands | 197.8 | est. Q2 2009 |
I am a big fan of your elaborate site on home building. Stephen Dent just started a construction website of his own.
If you get a chance, please feel free to take a peak at it. It's a work in progress, but you can get the idea.
I think it is fantastic how we are using renewable energy and going green in so many ways. I think we also need to do things like reducing our energy usage, like installing geothermal heat pumps to replace high energy heating and cooling systems.
These wind farms are starting to really show up in community building plans all over the globe not just North America. I hope more and more governments really realize the importance of using wind power and weening ourselves of traditional methods of energy consumption.
Here, Here ... "I hope more and more governments really realize the importance of using wind power and weening ourselves of traditional methods of energy consumption." We are working with a Caribbean developer, who has had to change greener way of constructing, not only to help the environment, but to help locals too.