Officials at Correctional Services Canada (CSC) hope the windmill at the Drumheller Institution will be producing power in the near future.
The windmill, installed to generate a portion of the power used at the Drumheller Institution was purchased in 2008 and installed shortly after. In its short history most have seen it sitting idle, prompting rumours and coffee talk on why it is not running, and what it will take to get it going again.
Mayor Terry Yemen requested that Crowfoot MP Kevin Sorenson help him get to the bottom of the windmill mystery once and for all. Last week an answer came from Paul Provost, director, environmental protection programs technical services for Corrections Canada. He shed some light on the problems.
“The Drumheller wind turbine is not working because of technical difficulties relating mainly to the batteries and the inverter (electrical device that changes direct current to alternating current),” states correspondence from Provost.
The cost of the 600-kilowatt unit at the Drumheller Institution is just under $1.4 million and the main component (wind turbine) was manufactured in Germany. While many have speculated that a Canadian manufactured unit could have cost less, Provost dispels the rumour.
“There are no nacelle (turbine) manufacturers in Canada and only a limited number of manufacturers that make 750 kW turbines (i.e. comparable size to the Drumheller one) including Fuhrlaender (Germany), Aeronautica (USA), DeWind (Germany), Gamesa (Spain), Norwin (Denmark), Suzlon (Germany), Vestas (Denmark), and Enercon (Germany). Hence, given that there is no Canadian manufacturer for the same size of unit as the Drumheller wind turbine, a cost cannot be provided,” stated Provost.
One of the reasons the repairs needed to get the generator up and running again are faltering is the company that won the bidding process no longer exists. Provost explains that Lorax dissolved before the final project commissioning was reached, and the manufacturer had a contract with Lorax and not with Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), who contracted the project.
“PWGSC recently engaged the services of a Canadian consultant (technical expert in the area of wind turbines) in an effort to address and fix the wind turbine malfunction issues," said Provost. “CSC expects that the subject expert recently hired by PWGSC will evaluate, propose and implement the solutions so that the wind turbine problems can be resolved over the upcoming months but we do not have a more precise date at this point.”
