Ontario Power Generation is close to completing a wind turbine with a generating capacity of 1.8MW which it claims will be the largest in North America.
The unit is being built at the Pickering nuclear power plant, east of Toronto.
The turbine, which has been manufactured by a Danish company, stands 117 m high and has 39 m blades. The unit forms part of Ontario Power Generation’s strategy to invest $33 million in renewable energy sources as it prepares for deregulation of the Ontario power sector.
The Pickering site, on the shore of Lake Ontario, has a good wind regime and the nuclear site means that the unit can be connected directly into the grid without additional transmission line construction.
The lakeshore position has the additional benefit of being highly visible and good for public relations for the utility which has been criticized recently for relying too heavily on a coal-fired plant at Nanticoke on the shore of Lake Erie.
The 1.8 MW turbine at Pickering will be completed before work even starts on a project announced in March 2000, for a 10MW wind farm at the Bruce nuclear power station on the shore of Lake Huron. This larger wind facility will be populated with 600 kW turbines, and is due to be completed in 2002. There is already one demonstration turbine operating at the site.
Ontario Power Generation wants to quadruple its renewable energy capacity by 2005, using a mix of wind, solar, hydro and biogas.