With the recent completion of the 197.8 MW Wolfe Island EcoPower Centre off the coast of Kingtson, Ontario by Canadian Hydro Developers, Canada now has 2,775 MW of installed wind energy capacity, or enough power to meet the annual needs of 840,000 homes, according to the Canadian Wind Energy Association.

Where is all of this wind energy in Canada?  Check out this map of Canada’s current installed capacity.  Note that Ontario is now the leading province with 1,162 MW of installed capacity and BC currently has no operating wind farms. The Province’s goose egg in the wind energy department will be changing very soon with the Bear Mountain wind farm project  just south of Dawson Creek nearing completion. The turbines there are expected to be spinning in late fall. Should be quite a sight. 

You should be hearing a lot more from BC wind energy developers in the coming months. Collectively, they bid 19 wind projects into BC Hydro’s clean power call. And, as I blogged about last week, Grouse Mountain is working to install a single 1.5 MW wind turbine, which will serve a dual role – part electricity generator (up to 20% of Grouse Mountain’s annual requirements) and part tourist attraction (it will have an elevator to an observation deck).

And just to touch on when the results of the clean power call may be released by BC Hydro – barring a major shocker, it will happen after the BCUC releases its decision on BC Hydro’s 2008 LTAP.  When that will be is anybody’s guess. It could happen any day now. With billions of investment dollars waiting to be spent in this province, one hopes that the BCUC’s decision will come sooner rather than later and that BC Hydro’s much awaited decision on the CPC comes immediately thereafter, so we can all get to work on building the green energy projects the province so desperately needs.