Why Wind Energy?

Wind is an energy source that is clean, renewable, and relatively cheap. Although hydroelectricity and fuel energy are leading energy sources in British Columbia due to their accessibility, they are heavily associated with environmental damage. Hydroelectric power generation requires the flooding of entire valleys and scenic areas, disrupting natural seasonal changes and ecosystems (Lund 2002) and the burning of fossil fuels is a limited practice which results in heavy pollution. Wind energy, however, is a viable long-term energy strategy (West 2010), using a natural and virtually inexhaustible source of power - the wind - to produce electricity. Furthermore, wind energy potentials are alluring along the coast of British Columbia where wind speeds are high.

Fallbacks to wind power generation are minor and simple to avoid with careful planning. Wind farms should, ideally, be located on large tracts of land or to be located along coastlines to capture the greatest wind movement. Devoting certain areas to wind power generation sometimes conflicts with other practices, such as agriculture, urban development, or waterfront views due to their size and noise generation (West 2010). As well, wind turbine structure must be built at appropriate heights to minimize bird and bat mortality. These conflicts, thankfully, are easily solved with the consideration of spatial factors during wind farm construction.

Current Wind Projects in British Columbia

Canada has still only scratched the surface of its wind energy potential, which currently powers over 1 million Canadian homes (CanWEA 2007). The harnessing of electrical power via wind turbines and electro subunits has been growing in popularity every year in Canada – there are many small and large wind farms constructed throughout Alberta, Ontario, and a few in Quebec and the other Prairie Provinces. BC itself has one large wind farm, the Bear Mountain Wind Park, located near Dawson Creek (Brock 2010). It also plans to have another wind farm up and running in March 2011, named The Dokie Ridge Wind Farm in Chetwynd (PPCorporation 2010). As the cost of wind power continues to decline (as technology improves and better generation techniques arise) wind power will become increasingly feasible as a major source of electricity and mechanical power and we can expect to see more wind farm proposals for British Columbia in the near future.

Our Project

The purpose of our GIS project is to investigate viable, and ideal, locations to assemble a wind farm in British Columbia. The recently built Bear Mountain Wind Park and the pending Dokie Ridge Wind Farm are both located in the north eastern plains of our province just east of the Rocky Mountains (Brock 2010). As well, Naikun, a wind energy group, has plans to build the first offshore wind farm off the northwest coast of British Columbia in Hecate Strait, housing 110 turbines to provide clean and renewable energy to the province. As a team, we are interested in the assessment of other potential locations for the generation of wind energy, and would like to compare potential sites with the current location of both the onshore Bear Mountain and Dokie Ridge wind farms and the Naikun offshore wind farm.

In our analysis, we will be considering potential areas of both onshore and offshore locations; Offshore wind farms hold great potential as wind speeds above the ocean are greater and more consistent. In addition, such areas avoid unwanted wind turbulence caused by mountains, hills and large trees present at terrestrial locations. Offshore sites are also particularly alluring as they will reduce apparent visual and noise impacts caused by a group of turbines. These wind farms, however, are expensive to construct and to maintain. In our offshore analysis, we will evaluate locations based on their relative location to commercial fishing zones, ferry lanes and shipping routes, the shore, powerlines and bird colonies, in addition to the importance of ocean bathymetry and average annual wind speeds over the Pacific Ocean. Onshore wind sites do not have as great wind conditions, but building and maintance of the farm itself is cheaper and more ideal. For our onshore analysis, we will be considering land use in British Columbia, proximity to large cities and powerlines, and land slope and elevation, in addition to wind speed.