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Adventure Traveler Garry Sowerby in his own words:
Thursday, October 7
Pincher Creek and Beaver Creek, Alberta
Environmental Initiative #69
Vision Quest WindElectric
Wind Farm, Pincher Creek, Alberta It wasn't difficult to tell the direction of the wind this morning
on my daily power walk. The tilt of my body was the same as the
tilt of the workmen putting up a sign along the roadside. I was
in the land of the leaners.
The neighboring Rocky Mountains creates a funnel effect that sends
the wind spiralling toward the foothills here in Pincher Creek,
Alberta. The result is the windiest place in North America.
We noticed yesterday as we were approaching the area. It was the
only place I've ever driven on a dusty road where you can see the
vehicle behind you because the dust from your vehicle gets whipped
quickly out of sight.
Gee, what a great place this would be to install a few wind turbines,
to capture and harness this energy and create electricity!
Apparently, Vision Quest Windelectric, has already thought of
this.
Hal Jorgensen, Operations Manager for Vision Quest's Castle Creek
site, works out of a tiny galvanized metal building in the middle
of this vast expanse of golden pasture where cattle graze amid
the countless white majestic towers of swooping, spinning windmills.
He monitors and controls the turbines from one computer here in
his office.
He fills us in on the workings of wind energy and how it creates
electricity. Wind energy converts kinetic energy that is present
in the wind into more useful forms of energy such as mechanical
energy or electricity. Wind energy is a pollution-free, infinitely
sustainable form of energy. It doesn't use fuel; it doesn't produce
greenhouse gasses, and it doesn't produce toxic or radioactive
waste.
Humans have used wind energy for thousands of years. Ancient Persians
used wind energy to pump water thousands of years ago. The world
was explored by wind-driven ships long before engines were invented.
As recently as the 1920s, over a million wind turbines pumped water
and provided electricity to farms in North America.
Is it financially feasible to try and harness the wind, we wonder.
Modern wind turbine generators cost about $1500 per kilowatt for
wind farms that use multiple-unit arrays of large machines. Smaller
individual units cost up to $3000 per kilowatt. In good wind areas,
the costs of generating electricity range between five and ten
cents per kilowatt hour. That cost is somewhat higher than the
costs associated with an electrical facility, but wind energy costs
are decreasing every year, whereas most conventional generation
costs continue to increase.
And it makes environmental sense. Each megawatt-hour of electricity
that is generated by wind energy helps to reduce the 0.8 to 0.9
tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions that are produced by coal or
diesel fuel generation each year.
So, bring on the hurricanes?
Contrary to what one might think, hurricane-force winds would
not be desired in this situation. Hal points out that the optimum
windspeed to produce electricity is 40 km/h. A windier day than
that will require an adjustment in the turbine, perhaps even a
shutdown. This adjustment is done by the turbine itself since each
one here at Pincher Creek is equipped with its own weather station.
The monitoring system adjusts for wind speed and direction.
The turbines are virtually maintenance-free. They receive a service
check every 6 months and get a complete overhaul every 17 to 18
years.
I'm trying to picture how a wind turbine will look next to the
copper beech tree in our yard in Halifax when Bill Rumsey asks
Hal how he likes his new GMC pickup truck. Hal loves the function
and utility and the places he can get to in the truck. He sheepishly
remarks that it may not be as light on fuel as the Hybrid Silverado
we're driving.
"Well, nothing's free!" I offer.
He quickly replies, "The wind is!"
For more information on Vision Quest or wind energy in general:
http://www.visionquestwind.com/about.asp?pg=company&mi=01&bdy=b10&id=about
or
http://www.canren.gc.ca/tech_appl/index.asp?CaId=6&PgId=232
You are now leaving the mission green website to an external website.
Environmental Initiative #70
Oldman River Basin Water
Quality Initiative, Beaver Creek, Alberta
Oldman Dam was the only distinguishing landmark we could see on
the map that we had received by e-mail from Lisa. We were trying
to decipher the instructions to get to our next meeting place,
when the cellphone rang.
It was Cheryl Dash, Community Relations Officer for Alberta Environment,
just the person I was hoping to talk to. She would navigate us
to Oldman Dam and we would meet with the rest of the group there.
She had phoned me because the signs that she had been trying to
erect to direct us to the site had been continuously blown down.
We were after all still in the Pincher Creek neighborhood. Wind
was always a factor in any outdoor activity in this breezy neck
of the woods.
It turns out Oldman Dam is not the destination but merely the
beginning of our journey. We drive another 30 minutes into the
back country. We have a feeling of remoteness. There is not another
living soul out here. Needless to say, we are surprised to see
a large group of people standing on the side of the road as we
round a bend.
They are Sandi Riemersma, Resource Planner for Alberta Environment,
Dixon Hammond, Coordinator of the Beaver Creek Watershed Group,
Michael Gerrand, Riparian Specialist for Cows and Fish Organization
and Jeff Porter, Conservation Coordinator for the Southwestern
Alberta conservation Partnership.
Hopefully, this enthusiastic group of people is going to share
with us the reason we've stopped at an abandoned, rather decrepit
house that sits alongside a stream. It's a peaceful scene, a familiar
country tableau and one that you would note on a Sunday afternoon
drive but not give it much thought after it disappears in the rearview
mirror.
What's so special here then to make Mission Green stop on its
cross-country tour? What is going on here?
These people were part of a group called the Oldman River Basin
Water Quality Initiative in 1997 in response to serious concerns
expressed in the community about protecting water quality in the
Oldman River Basin.
In the first five years of its existence, the group had focused
on collecting baseline information on water quality and how to
improve it, classifying land use, and communicating the activities
of the Initiative.
This abandoned house is a monitoring station from where information
is being collected on the water quality of the stream. The stream
is one of the many tributaries that run into the river system of
the Oldman Basin.
Over the next five years, the Initiative's work will shift toward
understanding beneficial management practices (BMP) and encouraging
practice change. Equal priority will be given to rural areas and
to urban areas across the Basin.
BMP sounds complicated but a beneficial management practice can
be something as simple as diverting cattle from grazing near water
so that their waste doesn't end up in the river system or changing
the location of where salt licks for the cattle are placed so that
the vegetation around them naturally filters the runoff.
When we learned about the number of partners involved in the Initiative,
we were struck by the sense of true community action happening
here.
The partners range from the Alberta Beef Association to various
divisions of the Alberta government (Alberta Agriculture, Food
and Rural Development, Alberta Environment, for example) to organizations
like Alberta EcoTrust and Ducks Unlimited Canada to companies like
Mountain Equipment Co-op and institutions like the University of
Lethbridge.
What started out as seven ranchers getting together to try and
do something to protect the quality of water in the Basin has grown
to an innumerable and inexhaustible group of people that are bent
on action and making a difference.
As we left our meeting place, we turned to
look at the old house. On that Sunday afternoon drive, you would
look at the leaning structure as you whizzed by. You would admire
the quaint country scene of the bubbling brook running through
the yard and you would think, "What
a shame that house and yard have outlived their usefulness."
You wouldn't imagine the hubbub of activity inherent in the bubbling
or the importance of that activity for the Oldman River Basin and
its inhabitants, human, vegetable, animal and mineral.
http://www.oldmanbasin.org/main.html
http://www.cowsandfish.org/
http://www3.gov.ab.ca/env/
You are now leaving the mission green website to an external website.
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