Rainy’s future could blowing in the wind

Ken Johnston

There is something blowin’ in the wind...
Last week the Ministry of Natural Resources released an online wind atlas that shows all the wind data for the entire province.
Of significant interest to people living in and around Rainy River to Morson is the fact that this area is one of only a few in the province that shows promise for the development of wind energy.
Mike Belcher, Manager of the Wind Atlas project, said over a billion pieces of data were compiled to calculate out the average wind speeds in Ontario and the potential they have for producing electricity. “There is really good commercial opportunities in the Rainy River area,” said Belcher.
He noted that developers generally look for average wind speeds of 6.5-9.5 m/s before looking at development. Just north of here they range from 6 all the way up to 9 m/s.
Ted Gruetzner of the Ministry of Energy said that with the movement to phase out coal fired generation in places like Atikokan there is a big push by the government to generate cleaner or green electricity. While his ministry is not offering grants to build wind generating turbines, they have been soliciting proposals from private companies to develop wind energy. “We have done larger projects and are looking at smaller ones to be out this fall.”
Just last week the Ministry of Energy announced the beginning of construction of the largest wind farm in Ontario. At a cost of $186 million some 66 wind turbines will be located on the north shore of Lake Erie. They will generate an estimated 99 megawatts of power and supply about 32,000 homes.
Rainy River town councillor Ed Tymkin told the Record last week that he had been pursuing the potential for wind turbines here in recent months, but prior to the MNR wind atlas (www.ontariowindatlas.ca) it was thought the potential for development was nominal at best here.
Geoff Gillon, Economic Development Officer with the Rainy River Future Development Corporation echoed that sentiment before seeing the new map.
With the potential there, the next job is the attract a developer or private investors. Tymkin said one turbine can produce 1.6 megawatts of energy. “Rainy River would use less than half that amount and the rest could be sold.” However, the cost of a turbine is more than a million dollars.
Gruetzner (MoE) said they just put another request for proposals to develop wind energy in the province on July 12th. That info. is available at their website, www.energy.gov.on.ca. He said that the only obstacle a developer might face in Rainy River is getting the turbines to the site. “They are manufactured in Denmark and shipped via boat to the location.”
However, Tymkin said he has even thought of Rainy River becoming a manufacturing center for turbines.