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Wind tower erected in Brinston
by Meghan Duncan
Press staff
Winchester Press, May 9, 2007
BRINSTON - "I don't know why we have to test if there's wind in this area or not," joked Luke Geleynse, on the gusty afternoon of Thurs., May 3. Geleynse, owner of Terravis Energy Solutions, was nearing completion on a 60-metre tower that will test wind speed and direction over the next 12 months on Tibben Farm property - the first step toward establishing a wind farm in Brinston.
"I'd love to see upwards of 150 turbines in the Brinston area," Geleynse said of an eventual dream. "But we hope to start with a simple project of five turbines - a 10-megawatt system."
The current test tower has two anomometres at the 40, 50, and 60-metre levels, so there is a back up at each level. It took four days to install, and when Geleynse was speaking with the Press on-site, he simply had to hook up the data logger and the project would be finished, and ready to start measuring the wind.
When Geleynse and his team were ready to lift the tower into place, they almost had to postpone - ironically because it was such a windy day.
"We were debating not putting it up," he said of the wind's interference. "But we were eager to get it up."
The tower will record information for a minimum of one year. That data will then be used to help secure funding for the future wind farm.
Geleynse explained that a 10-megawatt project will cost between $18 and $20 million, with a four to five-year payback period.
"So it's very lucrative," he said. "After
five years, you're making money."
But to get funding for such a large project, you have to be able to
prove it is feasible.
"You have to have real, accurate data that you can count on to back up your business plan," Geleynse said. That's why the current tower is so important to the project. He also explained that there are investment groups ready and waiting to help fund renewable energy projects.
"The tower may stay permanently after the wind farm is up," Geleynse said, noting that the measurements recorded by the tower can be cross referenced with the energy being produced by the turbines, thereby identifying any problems. "It's a way of verifying."
He explained that the Tibben and Thurler farms split the cost of the $30,000 test tower in the hope of setting up a future co-operative with area landowners.
Oliver Thurler told the Press that wind energy has been on his mind for the last four or five years.
"I couldn't get anywhere," he said of his research process, noting that companies in Western Ontario weren't ready to explore Eastern Ontario. He spoke with Geleynse about six months ago and said he is excited that the project developed so quickly.
"It looks promising," he said. "I don't think there's any reason it can't work here - it works everywhere else."
Thurler said he's excited to see the data generated by the tower, but also about the future plans to unite area landowners.
"Once the data is in, we'll hopefully hold a community town hall meeting to get everyone on board," Thurler said, noting that anyone will have the opportunity to own shares in the eventual co-operative. "This will generate money for everyone involved - it will bring everybody together. That's what I'm excited about."
Mark Tibben said he's happy with the tower on his farm.
"We decided to get the ball rolling," he said, noting it was just three weeks ago that about 10 interested parties met with Geleynse for an information meeting. "At that point we thought, 'the sooner we get the monitoring tower up, the better.'"
Tibben noted that while he's been considering alternative energy sources for quite some time, wind energy hadn't really crossed his mind.
"I always thought that wind farms had to be close to a water course," he said. "I never really realized the potential (we have in the area) up until recently."
Under the provincial government's standard offer contract, 10-megawatt wind farms receive 11 cents per kilowatt from the province, and another cent from the federal government, with slight increases every year. Through the standard offer program, a wind farm can't be any larger than 10 kilowatts.
"It makes the most economic sense to go as big
as possible within the limits," Geleynse said.
He said that the benefits of wind farms outweigh the negatives, noting
that a lot of Ontarians don't see where their energy comes from.
"We don't always see the effects," he said of nuclear power plants and coal burning. "This (wind energy) is clean power that's completely renewable. This is a very real way of meeting some of the Kyoto protocol."
He said that the area has been overlooked for it's wind possibilities.
"Eastern Ontario has some decent potential for large wind projects," Geleynse said, explaining that there's a solid transmission system to make the energy produced accessible.
"In Western Ontario, there aren't enough power lines to get the power to Toronto," Geleynse said of the wind farms in the Bruce County region. "In Eastern Ontario, we're not plagued with that problem."
When compared with areas where wind farms have been placed in other parts of the province and country, Eastern Ontario has a much lower wind regime, but its average is still higher than in Germany - the world's leader in wind power.
"They have the most wind power installed," Geleynse said about Germany. "There are 70,000 jobs in the wind industry alone."
He noted that a 150-turbine wind farm would need about 50 employees for turbine maintenance and other aspects of the operation.
"This will stimulate the economy and create jobs - it's a positive thing," Geleynse said. "It's a good thing for the area, and for the tax base." He noted that a wind farm could create about $30,000 a year in municipal taxes.
Geleynse speaks ardently about energy solutions.
"Ten million people in Ontario need power, and we're in a serious challenge if we don't teach them to live more conservatively and use renewable forms of energy," he said, noting that wind farms are only a small part of the mix. "We have to offset pollution and foreign dependency on oil any way we can."
As for the test tower that can be seen from the Brinston road just north-east of the village, "It's generated a lot of interest," he said, noting that it's the tallest structure for 70 miles.
The tower is close to the Terravis office, making it easy for Geleynse to monitor. Terravis was established three years ago, and Geleynse said he hopes to develop renewable energy projects all over Eastern Ontario.
"It's very early on," he said. "We've got a long way to go."
Going green can pay cash dividends
Elisabeth Johns
For: www.standard-freeholder.com
- Saturday, April 21, 2007 @ 10:00
Bill Barkley, his three children, his wife and their dog live in a sprawling two-storey home, yet the Morrisburg farmer only pays $30 a month for electricity.
He designed the home, in which his family has lived for nearly three years, to be completely energy efficient.
He's installed two solar panels on the roof of his garage to heat water.
The floors in his home are concrete radiant floors, which are essentially under the floor pipes that hold warm water to heat the floor.
He used what's called passive solar energy to help heat the house by placing the majority of windows on the south-side of their home, among a number of other energy reductions he's implemented.
But the 48-year-old doesn't consider himself an environmentalist. "When I think of environmentalist, I think of evangelicals," he said.
He believes "you need to have a cause" to purport yourself as an environmentalist.
Barkley is one of a growing number of Canadians who are trying to reduce their energy output or, as former United States' vice-president and environment champion Al Gore says, their carbon footprint.
As Earth Day is celebrated on Sunday, more and more Canadians are focused on the environment and are pressuring the government to do more.
For Barkley however, he also sees the dollars and cents he will save.
The initial cost for the solar panels was $2,500 each, but he figures the payback won't be for at least another two years. He bought the solar panels about a year ago.
an experiment
It was also a bit of an experiment, said Barkley, who also built his garage using straw bales as an insulator.
"Again," he said, "You're not using trees."
"We want to be self-sufficient."
The expansive 100-acre farm, which has been in the family for seven or eight generations now, is shrouded in trees, where he gets the fuel for his wood boiler.
His home, which is made almost entirely of local products, right down to the ash hardwood staircase, is also designed to prevent overheating.
A southern facing second floor balcony shields a few of the main floor windows and will help during those days when the heat and energy off the sun is particularly strong.
All of the lightbulbs in their home are the compact fluorescent bulbs, he said, which use about 75 per cent less electricity than standard incandescent bulbs.
However, he expected to pay up-front costs when he built his home.
"I was told to plan for another $60,000 when building (an energy efficient) house," he explained. "It costs 20 per cent more to install radiant flooring and the house was 30 per cent more to build environmentally friendly."
While Barkley eventually plans to save money, the initial cost to reduce energy in the home is probably one many would balk at suggested Luke Geleynse, owner of Terravis Energy Solutions, a Green energy resources supplier based out of Brinston, Ont.
"Bill did a lot of the work himself," Geleynse said.
"The payback for solar domestic hot water heater I would suggest would be more like seven to 10 years."
While the one solar hot water panel costs $2,500, he agreed, there are still installation expenses.
Over the past two years, Terravis - which is Latin for Earth and power - has installed 15 solar hot water heating panels and three solar electricity panels across Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry counties.
Geleynse would classify four different types of people who buy their renewable energy products.
"There are people like Bill who are looking for an economic payback and helping the environment is just a bonus," he said.
They also see people who want to provide their own energy, those who use Green energy as a back-up for their current power source and environmentalists who want to leave a legacy and aren't as concerned about the cost, he said.
Right now, Terravis is involved with a group of farmers who want to invest and develop in a wind farm in Brinston, and who will take advantage of the provincial government's Standard Offer Program with Hydro One, he added.
The Standard Offer Program is one of a number of initiatives the Ontario government has implemented to encourage farmers and homeowners to be more energy efficient.
It is a long-term program in which the government will pay a fixed price (42 cents per kilowatt an hour for solar power electricity and 11 cents per kwh for wind power, both fixed over the next 20 years) for Green energy, said Sylvia Kovesfalvi, spokesperson for the Ontario Energy Ministry.
"The Standard Offer program is the largest of its kind in North America," Kovesfalvi said. "This is the one that David Suzuki praised because it encourages small private generators to produce electricity and sell it back to the province."
Ontario introduced legislation Wednesday to ban incandescent and inefficient light bulbs by 2012 and started the Every Kilowatt Counts program, which offers coupons - like $3 off compact fluorescent lights and $25 off ceiling fans at participating retailers until June 17 - to save on energy.
You can visit the website to download coupons and find out which retailers accept them at www.everykilowattcounts.com.
The federal government on the other hand, under the Ministry of Natural Resources, offers savings for homeowners who decide to purchase solar hot water panels, however, they must go through an energy evaluation of their home first.
"They must go through an evaluation before and after the retrofits," said Louise Roux, technical co-ordinator of the residential programs for the Natural Resources Ministry.
Once a homeowner has gone through the evaluation process, and the system meets specific standards, the individual can apply for up to a $500 grant, for a solar hot water system, for example.
But if the solar panel systems are already installed, it's too late, Roux added.
Under the Natural Resources Ministry, there are also rebates for replacing windows, doors and air conditioning units to more energy efficient units.
Cornwall's city council has also tried to make the environment one of its top priorities as it tries to build a new image beyond its industrial past. The black box is one of the initiatives the city is looking at to become more environmentally friendly.
The city landfill will begin accepting fluorescent tubes, electronic waste and appliances containing freon later this year; as well, the city is considering establishing a Green box program for recycling organic materials.
While these government incentives are a good step, Geleynse suggested they are simply not drastic enough.
"The federal government's suggestion that joining Kyoto will cause economic disaster and that there will be a loss of 75,000 jobs is absolute hogwash," he said.
"Every move towards Green living creates jobs."
People who want to reduce their energy output now simply can't wait for the government to offer real incentives, Geleynse contended. "People like Bill invested before there were rebates."
Local environmentalist Elaine Kennedy, has one solar panel for hot water propped up on the roof of her log cabin home in St. Andrew's. She drives a Toyota Prius - a hybrid car - and invests in Bullfrog Power.
Electricity consumers can buy Bullfrog Power, a Green power retailer, while they continue to use from the current electricity grid.
However, the company will ensure for however much energy Kennedy uses, for example, there is a Green energy source to match that.
Her money, she explained, goes towards Green energy. So, eventually, she figured, as more consumers who use Bullfrog Power, it will create less reliance on coal fired plants.
Kennedy, who moved to Cornwall in 1972 and started a newspaper recycling program, has tried to leave as small a carbon footprint as she can. She has changed almost all of her lightbulbs to compact fluorescents and is incessant about constantly turning off the lights to reduce her electricity usage.
She even figures it's not necessary to wash her car because she lives on a dirt road and she doesn't want to use up the water.
"My big thing is if I can cut my consumption, I might be able to encourage other people to do the same," she said. "I can't ask someone else to do things if I'm not willing to do it myself."
ejohns@standard-freeholder.com