Wind energy companies are treading new ground this month by trialling wind turbines at extreme low temperatures in Canada.
The Wind Energy TechnoCentre is the developer and owner of a new 2 turbine trial project known as “Site Nordique Experimental en EolienCORUS” (SNEEC)”.
Wind turbine manufacturer REpower and wind farm company RES Canada have now completed the construction of the 2 Megawatt turbines in the Gaspé region of the country. The trial is a forerunner to a much larger wind farm comprising 477 wind turbines in Québec.
The REpower MM92 turbines have been installed in the town of Gaspé, near Rivière-au-Renard. The SNEEC project uses two special cold climate versions (CCV) of the REpower MM92.
Matthias Schubert, CTO of Repower said “Our cold climate test facility in Inner Mongolia has already allowed us to prove that our technology can be used reliably, even at extreme temperature fluctuations and temperatures as low as -40º C… Nevertheless, it is important to thoroughly test the climatic conditions on site before we start to install the up to 477 REpower turbines for the Québec tender, which we recently won….This project is also to be used to provide training to REpower’s local service employees.”
According to the German based manufacturer, the REpower Systems team will monitor the turbines intensively over the coming months.
