The Canadian Wind Energy Atlas was unveiled officially by the Honourable Stphane Dion, Minister of the Environment, and the Honourable R. John Efford, Minister of Natural Resources at the Canadian Wind Energy Association Annual Conference and Tradeshow in Montreal yesterday.
"An efficient, reliable supply of clean, renewable energy is an essential part of addressing climate change and respecting our Kyoto commitment, and in assuring a competitive economy for the future," said Minister Dion. "The Canadian Wind Energy Atlas is an important step in that direction, and all Canadians can be extremely proud of the Canadian scientists and researchers who have developed the exciting and valuable technology that made the Atlas possible."
The just-completed Wind Energy Atlas is a massive database of high resolution wind statistics for all of Canada, making Canada the first large-area country in the world to have a comprehensive Wind Energy Atlas across its entire territory.
The Wind Atlas was created with WEST – the Wind Energy Simulation Toolkit – a sophisticated computer modeling program developed by scientists with the MSC, in partnership with their colleagues at Natural Resources Canada. WEST allows planners of wind energy projects to look both backward and forward in time to generate a detailed picture of wind patterns – a "wind atlas" – for any location in Canada. This means wind farms can be situated with greater precision and, by reducing the need for extensive field studies to verify wind conditions in a given area, development of new projects can move much more quickly.
"There is no question wind power will be an important part of Canada's energy mix for the future, and the Government of Canada is determined to provide the conditions that will allow the industry to expand," said Minister Efford. "We made a commitment to quadruple the Wind Power Production Incentive in the Speech from the Throne, and the release of the Wind Atlas and the availability of WEST will make investments in wind energy even more attractive."
As well as helping choose the best places for new wind farms, WEST can also be used to forecast wind conditions up to two weeks in advance, with eventually an estimation of the prediction uncertainty. This will allow electricity generators to predict when auxiliary power sources may need to be brought on-line to supplement the wind generation system.
The $260 million Wind Power Production Incentive (WPPI) covers approximately half of the current higher cost of wind energy compared to conventional sources for the first ten years of new wind power projects. The Government of Canada has also committed to purchase 20% of its electricity from emerging renewable power sources by 2006.
As of September 2004, Canada had 439 megawatts of installed wind energy capacity.
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