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RE: A FLIGHTY WIND -- Quebec style
Here in Quebec we have the largest two windmill farms in Canada -- one in
Matane and one in Cap-Chat, both of which are located in the east of the
province, in the Gaspesie peninsula.
The operator of the two facilities, the Groupe Axor, recently submitted a
detailed report to Quebec's Energy Board.
It includes a comprehensive set of data, including many graphs of the output
of the plants and local wind speeds over the last several years.
The results are quite shocking to windmill advocates -- they were reported
on a cover story of the April 27 edition of Montreal's French-language
newspaper, La Presse.
The Axor document, under the label "Mémoire Groupe Axor (23 avril 2004)," is
posted at
http://www.regie-energie.qc.ca/audiences/3526-04/MemoiresParticip3526/Memoir
e_GroupeAxor_23avr04.pdf
....its a 2.58 megabyte pdf file, encrypted to prevent copying (but you can
still download it and view it).
As in the La Presse article, the Axor document states (translation), " The
reality based over five years of operation is that during the best years,
when all functioned without any bugs, the capacity factor (CF) was 18% and
that it was 16,5 % on average for the last 12 months of production."
Two graphs in particular are interesting : in March of this year, the
Cap-Chat windmill park had an average CF of 14.5%.
In June of last year, it was just 10.3%.
The La Presse article continued, " Axor relied on the economic models
prepared by internationally reputed experts, but their forecasts proved far
too optimistic.
" We paid for our education, our knowledge is based on actual experience ",
commented Yvan Dupont, president of the company, owner since five years of
76 wind mills at Cape-Chat and 57 at Matane [each of 1 megawatt capacity].
[.....]
According to the Axor engineer, new windmill technology will improve their
output, but not enormously. "
It is estimated that that will not increase capacity factors by more than
about 4 %, meaning they will be able to reach 22 %, which is still very far
from what many imagined, always based on theoretical analyses. "
Because of this poor performance, electricity produced by windmills in the
Gaspésie is much more expensive than forecast and Axor keeps losing money
with its two plants, whose energy is sold to Hydro-Quebec. "
<end quote>
The next to last graph in the Axor report is also very interesting, as it
compares the 16.5% CF of the last 12 months, to the "facteur d'utilisation
moyen initialement projete par les experts = 30%" (which I don't think
requires translation).
Incidentally, this CONTRADICTS the statement in the LaPresse article, that
"En théorie, le facteur d'utilisation des éoliennes est de 25 %,
c'est-à-dire qu'elles produisent de l'énergie pendant 25 % du temps."
.....evidently, someone was yet again trying to downplay the drastic
difference between optimistic projections of wind-power advocates, and
real-life experience !!
One of the pro-wind submissions to the Energy Board included comparison
calculations based on a 34% CF for windmills and 60%CF for a natural gas
plant -- although only the latter was stated, while for the the former you
have to derive it yourself, from their figures of 2197MW installed capacity
vs. 6.5 TWh annual output -- see "Doc-7-1 - Éolien vs thermique-tableaux" at
http://www.regie-energie.qc.ca/audiences/3526-04/MemoiresParticip3526/Memoir
e_RRSE_Doc-7-1_Expt-Reid-tblx_21avr04.pdf (764 KB), submitted by RRSE, the
REGROUPEMENT POUR LA RESPONSABILITÉ SOCIALE DES ENTREPRISES.
<quote>
Le RRSE regroupe trente-cinq (35) membres dont le statut est reconnu
officiellement.
Parmi ces membres, se retrouvent :
- vingt-deux (22) corporations religieuses,
- deux (2) associations religieuses,
- onze (11) membres individuels.
Le RRSE, en conformité avec sa mission d.influencer la responsabilité
sociale des entreprises, se préoccupe et privilégie une approche de
développement durable pour la croissance desdites entreprises. Son
opposition au projet du Suroît s.explique à plusieurs niveaux :
<snip>
Cheers,
Jaro
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu]On Behalf Of Susan Gawarecki
Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 5:47 PM
To: RadSafe
Subject: A FLIGHTY WIND
The Guardian article (link below) goes into more detail on the wind vs.
nuclear debate in England.
--Susan Gawarecki
A FLIGHTY WIND
Wind Power Sparks Controversy Across Western Europe
In Western European countries, where thousands of wind farms are sprouting
up across the landscape, fierce bickering has broken out over the benefits
and drawbacks of wind energy. In the U.K. and Germany, activists and rural
residents are waging a ferocious battle against what the Germans call
"Verspargelung der Landschaft" -- the transformation of
the landscape into an asparagus field. While renewable energy in general
enjoys wide public support -- and heavy government subsidies -- in these
countries, wind farms have drawn the ire of groups that claim they foul the
landscape, create noise pollution, kill birds, and cost vastly more than
most other sources of energy. U.K. conservationist
David Bellamy calls wind power "sheer lunacy" and says "it beggars belief
that some environmental groups say [wind turbines] are 'green.'"
In turn, Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth U.K. calls anti-wind forces
"parochial, shortsighted, selfish, peddling falsehoods and misconceptions."
Wind-power advocates say that, in order to stave off climate change and a
resurgence of nuclear power, society needs to use what clean-energy sources
are available, and for now, that's wind.
straight to the source: The Guardian, John Vidal, 07 May 2004
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2426>
straight to the source: The Christian Science Monitor, Charles Hawley, 05
May 2004
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2428>
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