FEATURES : Mother Nature lends a hand

ith dozens of renewable energy projects – wind and solar power – in the construction phase, SaskPower is making significant strides towards a cleaner future.

Currently, SaskPower has approximately 240 megawatts of wind generation on its system. Plus, it’s in the process of building another 400 megawatts of wind power through contracts awarded to independent power producers (IPP).

By the end of 2023, SaskPower anticipates to nearly triple the amount of wind generation. By the end of 2023-24, it hopes to have one of the highest amounts of wind power percentage-wise in power generation of any province in Canada.

“We’re taking some pretty significant steps to clean up our electricity system so that it doesn’t have the greenhouse gas intensity that it has today or had in the past,” explained Mark Peters, P.Eng., Director of IPP Development at SaskPower.

SaskPower is working at developing solar generation options and is looking at smaller projects. It is in the middle of adding 40 megawatts of solar power at four different projects across the province. Through other programs, it is adding another 30 to 40 megawatts and aims to be at close to 80 megawatts of solar in the next two to three years.

“Our customers are expecting us to move in that direction,” Peters said. “And I think we are doing the right things to do it in a responsible and cost-effective way.”

SaskPower emissions decreased in 2019 compared to the previous year. Moving towards 2030, it plans to start replacing conventional coal with lower-emitting generation which in part will include wind and solar.

Right now, conventional coal makes up 31 per cent of power generation capacity in Saskatchewan. However, federal regulations on greenhouse gas emissions have spurred SaskPower into reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.
Saskatchewan has six wind power facilities operating in the province, with its power capacity from wind pegged at about five per cent.

The current cost of wind (approximately $35 per megawatt hour) is about half what it was in 2010 (approximately $70 per megawatt hour). Solar power is currently similar to where wind was 10 years ago in terms of pricing.

”Wind has come down in price and it’s to the point where it is starting to make good business sense. It is a cost-effective way of producing power,” Peters explained. “Solar power still has a way to go. The cost of solar may be twice the price of wind, but it’s continuing to come down. I suspect solar will get there eventually.”

With wind and solar power generation being emissions-free, there is no carbon tax attached to them.

That’s not to say wind and solar power generation aren’t without their challenges. The biggest one being that both rely on Mother Nature, meaning they can’t be controlled or assumed reliable.
“How do we integrate an intermittent type of generation like wind or solar that both fluctuate quite a bit from hour to hour and then layer on top of that the demand for electricity in this province?” Peters asked.

“You need generation you can rely on to meet the demand, while at the same time compensate for the fact that wind is fluctuating up and down. It’s difficult enough to match generation with load. But then layer in a generation type that you can’t control. That becomes a more complex problem to solve. It’s another variable that we need to solve to deliver electricity in a reliable fashion.”

“On the coldest and darkest day in January you want something you can turn on. Therein lies one of the challenges we have in Saskatchewan. You have to have some kind of backup generation to meet demand.”

It’s no secret southwestern Saskatchewan is considerably windier than elsewhere in the province. That’s where there’s an abundance of fuel in terms of wind power.

But dotting the landscape along the Saskatchewan-Alberta border with dozens of wind turbines isn’t as simple as it sounds.
Saskatchewan’s Centennial Wind Power Facility, completed in 2006, is southeast of Swift Current and capable of providing enough power for nearly 70,000 homes.

The facility is home to 83 wind turbines built on 7,500 acres of land. Each turbine is capable of producing 1.8 megawatts of power when there is sufficient wind. The turbines get their full power at wind speeds of 50 kilometres per hour. But they’ll run when wind speeds are between 15 and 90 km/h.

Peters was involved with this project. He recalls the variables that went into finding the most ideal location. They considered the best spot from a wind perspective and transmission accessibility to the site, in addition to finding willing landowners and minimizing the environmental footprint.

Plus, Peters noted there is a competitive market for the development of wind power projects by the private sector.

”We’re taking some pretty significant steps to clean up our electricity system so that it doesn’t have the greenhouse gas intensity that it has today or had in the past.”

- Mark Peters, P.Eng.
Director of IPP Development at SaskPower

“Because we’re engaged in the development of wind by the private sector now … they bid into the process,” Peters said. “We select which is the best value

by assessing a number of things including interconnection costs.”
“The competition drives the ideal location in terms of pricing, community engagement, Indigenous participation and environmental impact. We allow the marketplace to prepare proposals and then evaluate the proponent proposals for each site to find the best location.”