live projects
Wales round up...
NPC have been working for Alliance & Leicester on Carno II and Moel Maelogen II in the role of Banks Engineer providing due diligence services for 27.3MW of capacity. Construction work is underway on both sites with completion scheduled for the end of 2008. The work will be project managed from our Aberystwyth office in combination with NPC's site engineers who have re-located to North Wales for the duration of the construction phase.
If you would like to find out more about the services Natural Power can provide in Wales, please get in touch with John Woodruff in the Aberystwyth office: johnw@naturalpower.com
Office opens in Okotoks, Alberta in Canada.
In February 2006, Mary-Ellen Jones joined Natural Power from Jones Group Engineering Ltd. and last year set up a Natural Power office in Okotoks, approximately 40km south of Calgary. Mary-Ellen is a Professional Engineer that has been involved in the wind industry for over twenty years. She was a founding director of the Canadian Wind Energy Association and received the R.J. Temple Award in 1999 for her contribution to the technical development of the Canadian Wind Industry. She was also involved in establishing wind power development in Alberta through the Southwest Alberta Renewable Energy Initiative in the early 1990's. Since Mary-Ellen has joined NPC, the office has steadily grown to match the development demand and it now employs three further members of staff.
A brief history of wind in Alberta
Wind farm development started out in the province of Alberta back in 1991 in the Municipal District of Pincher Creek. Located on the edge of the Rocky Mountains, in southwest Alberta, Picher Creek enjoys the warm Chinook winds that compress and warm as they rush down the eastern slopes. After the initial installation of 19 MW on Cowley Ridge, the Pincher Creek region quickly became one of Canada's premier wind regions and now accounts for 30% of Canada's total installed capacity.
The wind regime in Pincher Creek is heavily influenced by the Rocky Mountains and almost 80% of the wind in this area comes from the south west. As you move further east away from the Rocky into the Prairie regions, the Chinook winds become less dominant and the wind rose becomes more dispersed. The wind regime in Alberta is heavily influenced by seasonal changes requiring specific modelling techniques.
The current market
The wind resource in Alberta has been found to be favourable for wind development with the strong wind patterns making layout design relatively straightforward. Take away the complexity of designing to meet stringent visual guidelines, minimal ecological designations and potential grid connection dates in 2011, many of the complexities found in UK development are much simplified. Over 3000 MW of wind power projects are planned to be developed in Alberta. System load growth is over 2% per year so wind power is destined to meet that demand.
What are we doing there?
In the last couple of years, Mary-Ellen and the Alberta team have been busy identifying sites and signing up land on behalf of our clients, commissioning draft ecological studies, submitting preliminary grid applications and providing technical and development services. Due to few reliable reference stations being available for use in wind resource assessment, independent monitoring campaigns are essential in order to minimise the uncertainty associated with wind and energy yield predictions. A regional anemometry campaign within Alberta has been initiated by NPC in order to verify the wind regime for client sites. A supplementary monitoring campaign utilising remote sensing ZephIR® laser anemometers is about to commence to investigate possible qualitative and quantitative issues on individual sites, in particular seasonal wind shear profiles.
NPC is involved with the Albert Electric System Operator by participating in number of committees established for AESO's Market and Operational Framework for Wind Integration in Alberta. Mary-Ellen is a member of the Wind Power Management, Supply Surplus and Wind Power Technical Specifications committees. She also is a member of the AESO's Wind Power Forecasting Working Group which is trailing three very different forecasting methods over a one year period which will conclude in June 2008.
Technology workshops
In order to draw attention to our wide range of consultancy services, workshops were recently held in our Vancouver and Okotoks offices in February and March of this year. Participants included many of the leading developers and investors in the Canadian wind energy market.
Presentations were given by Neil Douglas, Mary Ellen Jones, Mark Rogers and Ian Locker on our wind farm life-cycle consulting services, with a particular emphasis on our natural powertools™ suite which includes Melogale™ SCADA data analysis, ZephIR® laser anemometers and the Ventos® advanced wind energy CFD flow modelling. The focus was on how these tools can assist developers and lenders in reducing project risk and maximising project value at all stages in the project life-cycle.
The Okotoks workshop culminated in a live demonstration of a ZephIR™ laser anemometer in the back yard of the NPC office - the first time that wind speed data has been collected at a height of 150m in Okotoks (as far as we know)!
If you are interested in the services that Natural Power are supplying in Canada and would like to discuss any aspect of technical appraisal, project development, construction and asset management, please get in touch via sayhello@naturalpower.com.