Canadian Wind Energy Association holds tradeshow, conference, awards gala

January 28, 2008

The Baie-des-Sables wind farm is a 109.5 MW wind power facility located in Baie-des-Sables and Métis-sur-Mer, Que., developed jointly by Innergex and TransCanada.

The Canadian Wind Energy Association held its 23rd Annual Conference and Trade Show in Quebec City in January. Last year’s record-setting attendance of nearly 1,200 delegates was surpassed this year as over 1,500 delegates and 160 trade show participants came together in the provincial capital.

A gala celebration recognized the CanWEA award winners for 2007, including the Radio Advisory Board of Canada (RABC), the recipient of the R.J. Templin Award for scientific, technical or engineering excellence. The RABC proactively developed Canadian guidelines to assist wind energy project developers in identifying when their projects may pose a problem for radar and radio interference. Previously, wind energy projects may have faced delays and issues associated with the potential impact of wind turbines on radar and radio signals. 

Bullfrog Power, a retailer of green electricity to residential and commercial customers in Ontario and Alberta, was the winner of the Group Leadership Award. Bullfrog has been instrumental in identifying and engaging a customer base who select wind as their power of choice, facilitating the deployment of several small-scale wind energy projects in Ontario and Alberta (Schneider Power, Sky Generation and Alberta Wind Energy).

And finally, the Individual Leadership Award was won by Gilles Lefrancois, president of Innergex, winner of a large part of the first Hydro Quebec 1,000 MW wind project RFP. The first of these projects, Baie-des-Sables, has served as a model of wind project development in terms of its community engagement and outreach efforts.

At one of the event’s presentations, Quebec Minister of Natural Resources and Wildlife Claude Béchard underscored Quebec’s commitment to developing renewable energy and stressed Quebec’s goal of installing 4,000 MW of  wind energy by the year 2015, representing of 40 percent of Canada’s installed wind energy capacity in that year.

Nationally, it has been another good year for the wind energy industry setting it on a path to achieving a minimum of 12,000 MW of wind energy by 2016. That’s enough energy to meet 5.1 percent of Canada’s total electricity demand and supply power for 3.6 million homes.
www.canwea.ca
www.rabc-cccr.ca
www.bullfrogpower.com
www.innergex.com/en