World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

February 5, 2006 – Vol.10 No.46

WORLD WIND WATCH.

Just a few years ago Canada, with significant wind resources, had little installed wind energy capacity, just 322 megawatts at the end of 2003.

But, the desire to cut greenhouse gas emissions along with government incentives is causing wind energy to grow rapidly. According to the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) new wind capacity at then end of 2005 stood at 683 megawatts more than twice what it was at the end of 2003.

Though the addition of 239 megawatts in 2005 may seem small compared with the thousands of megawatts added by Germany or the U.S. in the same time period, it’s the future of wind energy for Canada that holds promise.

CanWEA said that 3000 megawatts of new capacity are now under contract to be built in the next few years and by 2015, less than ten years from now, federal and provincial policies put in place in 2005 should help see the construction of 8000 megawatts by then. At 8000 megawatts wind would be supplying 16 percent of all electricity generated in the nation.

(Add that 16 percent of electricity from the wind to the 62 percent of electricity that’s generated from hydropower in Canada and the nation will be one of the greenest on the planet, at least when it comes to power generation.)

CanWEA hopes the 8000 megawatts of wind by 2015 is a small number and that 10,000 megawatts are installed or contracted for by 2010. Visit CanWEA at http://www.canwea.org/ .

One company in Canada is gearing up to reap the rewards of Canada’s growing wind energy business.

Algoma Steel of Sault Saint Marie, Ontario has partnered with Schaaf Industries Corporation (SIAG) of Germany, to establish a wind tower manufacturing facility in Sault Saint Marie.

The wind tower fabrication facility will have two parallel production lines and eventually employ 140 to produce up to 180 towers per year.

SIAG, with seven shops in Europe accounts for over 13 percent of Europe’s tower fabricating capacity.

The partnership will be known as SIAG Great Lakes. Visit Algoma Steel at http://www.algoma.com/ .

Siemens Wind Power is responding to the growing global demand for wind turbines by investing more than $59 million (EUR 50 million) in its wind turbine manufacturing capabilities.

The company has purchased a former LM Glasfiber factory in Engesvang, Denmark for manufacturing rotors and is investing in already-owned facilities, all with the goal of increasing production.

In 2005 Siemens doubled its sales of wind turbines over the previous year with nearly 630 megawatts of wind turbine capacity being shipped. According to a company press release, 2006 production capacity for turbines is almost fully booked at its two already operating assembly shops. (Thus the need to expand to the LM Glasfiber plant.

The newly acquired plant will be used to fabricate rotor blades from a new technology developed by Siemens. With the IntegralBlade technology blades are cast in one piece in a single step from glass-fiber-reinforced epoxy resins. The process is entirely closed to contain fumes.

Siemens has hired more than 700 people in its wind division since it acquired it from Bonus AG a little over a year ago. Visit Siemens at http://www.siemens.com/powergeneration