Alberta 900 MW Cap on Wind Power Lifted

[jpak]

http://www.renewableaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=50153

Alberta, Canada's self-imposed wind generation cap of 900 megawatts (MW) has been lifted following the government's completion of an interconnection and transmission study. Wind intermittency and maintaining constant balance between supply and demand within the provincial grid system were the major reasons cited for the cap.

Market and business structure allowing for large-scale wind production also required further study.

In April 2006, these concerns prompted the 900 MW cap, which critics such as The Pembina Institute, Canada's energy watchdog, considered an unnecessary burden on the fledgling Canadian wind power industry.

"While the news is encouraging, as a province we are now just stepping back up to the plate that we had backed away from over a year ago," says Tim Weis, Senior Technical and Policy Analyst at the Pembina Institute. "There is lots of work still to be done, and we have to make up for the time we lost since the threshold was first imposed."

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