September 1, 2008

DON PETTIT/PEACE PHOTOGRAPHICS

Workers prepare rebar for the foundation of a wind farm turbine near Dawson Creek, B.C.

Alternative Energy

Foundation work underway on the Bear Mountain wind farm in British Columbia

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

Massive foundations for wind turbines at the Bear Mountain Wind project in northeastern B.C. are under construction.

The installation of the turbines and commercial production of electricity are scheduled for 2009.

Bear Mountain Wind Limited Partnership is a 100-megawatt, $190-million development on a mountain ridge located 16 kilometres southwest of the City of Dawson Creek in the Peace River Regional District.

Since construction began last December, new access roads have been completed and the land has been cleared.

“In July we started building foundations for the wind turbines,” said Jim Bracken, Bear Mountain president.

“We have just completed three or four of the foundations, and a number of other foundations are at various stages of completion. A lot of steel rebar needs to be put in place first and then the concrete is poured. All the foundations will be completed by fall.”

According to Bracken, each foundation takes about 50 loads of concrete. This means the construction of 34 foundations during the summer and early fall will take 1,700 total loads.

“We not only need access roads to drive trucks on the site to pour concrete for the foundations, we also need to get a crane beside each turbine site to lift the turbine into place,” he explained.

The wind towers are 78 metres from the ground to the hub, which houses the generator and is where the blades are attached to the turbine.

“We need a crane pad foundation to do work because a fairly heavy special purpose crane will need to get in there,” Bracken said.

“Next spring and early summer the turbines will start showing up. There will be 34 turbines and blades arriving and they will all go up at the same time next summer.”

The turbines are manufactured and will be installed by German-based Enercon.

The turbines are designed without a gearbox, so they are more reliable and quieter than other turbines.

Bracken said that after the construction work is done, the crane pad areas will be reclaimed and seeded. The pads will remain hidden under the soil and grass, so that in the future, if a crane needs to be brought in to do work on a turbine, the pad is still there.

The remainder of the Bear Mountain project consists of a substation with staging area, an overhead 138-kV transmission line connecting the project to the BC Hydro grid, and off-site interpretive and operations centres in the City of Dawson Creek.

The wind farm is scheduled to be operational by November 2009.

The community kickstarted the plan when it recognized the potential in the region for generating wind power.

“The program was initiated by the community, who thought of the idea,” said Bracken.

“It was a windy place and they thought it would be a good place for a wind farm. They got an investigative-use permit from the government because this is crown land. They put up met towers to collect data about wind and found the wind was strong and consistent enough to be a wind farm.”

Bear Mountain Wind is wholly owned by AltaGas.

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