What goes up will come down

End of life for the Pickering wind turbine. Ironically its demise serves as a metaphor for  illusions peddled that wind turbines are a viable means for on demand electricity generation.  Waiting for the winds to be just right (not too fast or slow, or no wind)  turbines fueled by the wind produce out of sync with demand.  It is also plagued by generation that is variable and intermittent in nature.  Introducing wind powered generation creates  increased need for fossil fuels (usually gas) for back- up generation capacity that can be there when needed.  Turbines have an eye watering, otitic throbbing 20 years or less operational life cycle.

Credit: Ontario Power Generation|News Update May 30, 2019

Later this year, Pickering residents will see a change as they stroll along the Waterfront Trail at Alex Robertson Park. Ontario Power Generation’s wind turbine has reached its end of life and will soon be dismantled.

While the turbine has produced clean, renewable energy for many years, it’s important that we make smart investment decisions that will return good value for Ontario. And because the cost to replace the turbine’s older parts is too high, and leaving the turbine in place but not operating would present a safety concern, we’ve made the decision to move forward with dismantling it.

Did you know?

The turbine has operated for almost 20 years
At full power, it could produce enough energy to power about 330 homes
While located beside the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, it’s actually operated and maintained by our Niagara Operations team

Once work begins it will take about two weeks to dismantle the wind turbine. We’ll publish the date here once it’s been determined.