Could We Have This in Canada?

This is a much better idea! Could we do that here??

WCSH6.com reports:

VINALHAVEN (NEWS CENTER) -- Maine's first "community wind power" project is nearing completion, and a lot of people are watching very carefully.

The three 1.5 megawatt turbines are being built on the island of Vinalhaven, and will provide electricity to that island and neighboring North Haven. This is the first wind project in the state where the power generated will be used locally.

The commercial wind farms sell power to the electric grid. But Fox Island Wind, the name of the local non-profit formed to develop the project, will use most of the electricity right on the two islands.

George Baker, CEO of Fox Island Wind, says in the winter months, when the wind blows the most, the turbines should provide more than enough electricity for the islands. In summer, he says, when there is less wind, they may have to buy power from CMP. Any extra electricity generated will be sold to CMP.

Projections show the project should generate slightly more power than the islands consume, and that's why the project is so important to island communities.

Vinal Haven and North Haven residents currently pay about twice as much for electricity as people on the mainland. Building the wind turbines, says Baker, will stabilize their electric rates for the next twenty years. And those rates will be an estimated 15 to 20 percent less than they pay now.

Now several other island communities, and some on the mainland, are talking with Baker about copying what Vinalhaven and North Haven have done.

For the moment, the Fox Island project is moving ahead quickly. Cianbro project managers say the third and wind turbine should be complete by the end of this week or early next week. Then crews will complete wiring, and General Electric, which makes the actual generating equipment, will then be brought in for a final inspection. Once everything is ready, they expect to begin generating power sometime in November.


http://www.foxislandswind.com