I do often write about the limitations of variable renewable energy sources (vRES). Wind and solar in Ontario seem to have an additional problem: wiring.
A tweet alerted me to news from Manitoulin Island and “the most expensive wind electricity captive ratepayers are forced to buy”:
McLean’s Mountain Wind Farm will be laying a new submarine cable across the floor of the North Channel this summer due to issues with the existing cable.
“When we first put it (the submarine cable) in (in 2013), we had some issues, a short to ground,” explained McLean’s Mountain Wind Farm Manager Rick Martin. “We made the repair, but now we have decided to lay a new one, leaving the old cable as back up.
I suspect they’ll be leaving it there as garbage.
I wrote McLean’s Mountain Wind Joke isn’t funny in August 2015. A comment attached to that article, from LSARC, discussed the transmission issues. In that article I noted the performance of the generator trailed the performance of other projects built in the same period.
I’ve extracted current data summarized by month, and while McLean’s Mountain has been the worst site to enter service since 2012, perhaps due to the transmission issues, the Grand Wind Farm is not too far behind.
Samsung’s Grand Renewable project also has transmission issues.Read More »
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