He said that wind power is cheaper than natural gas-fired electricity, and that he expects windmills to start being constructed along the shores of the Great Lakes very soon. "By next spring (2004), you will see dozens of windmills," he said. "By 2007, we will see hundreds." Gilchrist said that the economics of building natural gas-fired power plants has changed as gas prices "are mired in absolute uncertainty and are expected to stay high for years to come." The cost of wind power has fallen with technological advances. Gilchrist said: "If you want to make your multi-hundred-million investment on the basis of pure speculation, idle musings and crystal balls, you may still choose natural gas." Mike Crawley, president of Aim Powergen, said that the big driver for wind power expansion will be purchase agreements with the province. Crawley said that power purchase deals for wind farms need to be at least 15 years long to cover nearly the entire term of the debt, so investors will feel comfortable enough to get into the new sector.
In Québec, Hydro-Québec has issued a call for tenders to build a 1000MWe wind farm between 2006 and 2012. This will dwarf the existing 102MWe facilities currently in place in the Gaspe region.
In addition, Canada's largest wind farm has recently been completed in Alberta. The McBride Lake wind farm has 114 turbines with a total capacity of 75MWe. McBride took just 200 days to assemble once the permits and investment were in place.
Vision Quest Windelectric, a wholly owned arm of TransAlta, is now moving to a larger project nearby, called Summerview. Summerview will have 75 turbines, and will produce 120MWe if the permits are granted.
Glen Estill, the president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, said southwest Alberta has the "perfect combination" of outstanding winds, a deregulated industry, high provincial power prices, and a developing consumer market for premium green electricity.
Wind power currently has a capacity of 311MWe throughout Canada. The wind energy association has an ambitious target of 10,000MWe to be installed by 2010. It said that massive wind energy expansion in Germany over the past eight years proves that goal is attainable.
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