March 2007 ISSUE

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Hurdles Make Taber Wind Power Challenging

A favourable site with a good wind regime is just one piece in a green but complicated wind energy puzzle. There are, for example, the challenges you couldn’t foresee, ENMAX learns

BY RAYMOND MCKAY, P.ENG.
Vice-President, Business Development  
ENMAX Corporation

PAST MEETS PRESENT ENMAX’s Taber project is among many that are adding wind turbines to the prairie iconography, particularly in the south. This emerging green method of generation is not, however, without its challenges.-photo courtesy ENMAX

Don’t let the many wind turbine generators you see from the highway fool you. Building a wind farm in Southern Alberta is not easy.

Every large renewable energy project has a lengthy development process due to the “newness” of the energy form and the various other project issues. Our Taber Wind Power Project was no exception.

Now that it is in the midst of construction and due to go online in April, it is interesting to look back on the development process and revisit the hurdles encountered.

In 2004, ENMAX acquired the Taber wind farm site at an early stage of development from a previous developer. The site was well suited for a wind farm, primarily because of its strong wind regime, good historical wind data, access to unconstrained transmission capacity, local support and limited environmental concerns.

Despite these advantages, hurdles — some expected but many unforeseen — were encountered throughout the development process.

One of the first issues to deal with was the selection of our wind turbine generators. Of the three manufacturers who responded to our request for proposal, only one could meet our schedule.

To complicate matters further, at first look the vendor’s pricing challenged our financial requirements.
While we negotiated with the three vendors, hoping to improve either schedule or pricing, the U.S. wind industry continued to heat up in a rush to meet production tax credit deadlines. With one eye on the U.S. dollar and Euro exchange rates and another on the overheating Alberta construction and steel markets, we continued to press our vendors for concessions.

Finally Enercon, a German manufacturer of gearless wind turbine generators eager to build in Canada, met the project requirements. We finalized a purchase agreement.

While very happy with Enercon’s technology, we knew that together we were about to embark on a huge learning journey. Enercon prepared to erect 37, 2.2-megawatt, E70 wind turbines for our project. The Taber wind farm is one of Enercon’s largest projects and its first transmission-connected project in North America.

Now Comes the Fun Part
Because large wind farms are relatively new to Canada, the regulatory process can be onerous and is in a constant state of flux. Numerous permits were required, including a development permit from the Municipal District of Taber, and permits from NAV Canada and Transport Canada. The project also required several approvals from the Alberta Energy Utilities Board, Fortis, the Alberta Electric System Operator and AltaLink.

There’s more. Alberta Community Development required an assessment of our impact on historical resources. We reported on any discoveries of archaeological, paleontological or historic sites that might be encountered during the construction or reclamation processes.

In the midst of completing these approvals, changes to processes and guidelines caused additional confusion and delays.

A thorough environmental impact assessment was also required, by the Alberta Energy Utilities Board and for our Wind Power Production Incentive application. While the Taber wind farm site was considered a low-impact area because of its location on cultivated land, both ferruginous and Swainson’s hawks were discovered near some potential turbine sites.

Although setback requirements were not clearly defined, ENMAX relocated several turbines to ensure that the hawks would not be disturbed.

Turbine selection, the wind regime and environmental concerns all influenced the farm layout. This iterative process made it very difficult to negotiate the required leases with landowners, the majority of whom were farmers. Some owners wanted more turbines, some didn’t want any and others wanted the turbines moved.

From the beginning, ENMAX maintained open communication and developed strong relationships with landowners and the surrounding community. We conducted several open houses and even now continue to publish quarterly newsletters to keep everyone informed of the project’s progress.
Eventually, after several iterations, the wind farm layout was finalized, all landowners were on board and the required leases were signed.

Another critical element in the viability of the project was the necessity to secure Wind Power Production Incentive funding, administered by Natural Resources Canada. The approval process has many stringent requirements and timelines that the developer must meet.

An approved environmental impact assessment was the most significant of these. The existing funding of the incentive program was almost depleted due to competing projects, and with the 2006 federal election, expansion of the program was put on hold.

However, by fulfilling all the criteria of the Wind Power Production Incentive application, we were able to secure funds under the original program and declare full notice to proceed, with only a small impact on schedule.

With each regulatory and permitting process dependent upon another, maintaining the timeline was critical and often difficult. Some hurdles can be expected in large development pro jects and the emerging Canadian wind industry is certainly no exception.

Balancing a turbine shortage with an evolving regulatory regime and landowner issues provided more hurdles than expected. However, ENMAX has overcome all of them. Construction is in full swing and we continue to keep our landowners, surrounding community and all levels of government informed of the project’s status.

The Taber Wind Power project will be complete and fully commissioned, next month.