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Wind power projects blow through planning stages in Canada and the US
11/9/2024
News
In North America, wind power projects continue to move through development and into construction.
First, fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners reports that its Buffalo Plains onshore wind farm in Alberta, Canada, has transmitted its first power to the grid. The 83-turbine farm will have a total capacity of 495 MW when completed. Delivered in collaboration with Siemens Gamesa and Borea Construction, the first wind turbine was installed in April and the rest are to be installed by the end of the year.
The Energy Institute’s latest Statistical Review of World Energy reports that in 2023 Canada had a total of 16.9 GW of installed wind turbine capacity, up 11.3% over the previous year and an increase from 7.8 GW in 2013.
According to the Review, the US had 148 GW of installed onshore wind capacity in 2023; there, offshore wind is taking off, as only 41 MW of offshore wind capacity was registered in 2023.
On the US east coast, the first offshore wind turbine at the Revolution Wind farm has been installed. The Ørsted/Eversource project will see 65 11 MW Siemens Gamesa wind turbines (the same used at the Ørsted/Eversource South Fork Wind) to offer 400 MW of capacity for the state of Rhode Island, and 304 MW for Connecticut.
The site is adjacent to the South Fork Wind project, 15 miles south of Rhode Island and 32 miles south-east of Connecticut. Ørsted has also broken ground on the neighbouring project Sunrise Wind development.
Three ports are involved in construction: State Pier at New London, Connecticut; ProvPort in Providence, Rhode Island and Quonset Point, Rhode Island.
To the south, the US government has approved US Wind’s Maryland Offshore Wind Project. The potentially 2 GW-scale wind farm consists of three planned phases, which include the proposed installation of up to 114 wind turbines. Two phases, known as MarWin and Momentum Wind, already have offshore renewable energy certificates from the state of Maryland.
The project is the 10th commercial-scale offshore wind energy project approved under the current administration. In total, they are rated for more than 15 GW of offshore wind energy capacity – equivalent to half of the capacity needed to achieve the administration’s goal of 30 GW by 2030.
Meanwhile, the US government has announced plans to hold the first offshore wind energy lease sale in waters offshore the west coast state of Oregon. Two areas, Coos Bay and Brookings, are to be auctioned on 15 October, offering development potential of up to 3.1 GW, according to the Department of the Interior.
According to a notice in the US Federal Register, five companies have been qualified to bid: Avangrid Renewables, BlueFloat Energy Oregon, OW North America Ventures, US Mainstream Renewable Power and South Coast Energy Waters I.
One of the stipulations of the bid is that bidders include plans for how they would develop a US-based floating offshore wind industry supply chain that would facilitate this or other renewable energy projects.
