[Sust-mar] NS wind atlas

[Larry Hughes]

In keeping with its tradition of overselling anything to do with energy in
the province (from oil to natural gas to wind), the Nova Scotia government
recently unveiled its $78,000 "Nova Scotia Wind Atlas."

The atlas, available on the Nova Scotia Department of Energy's website,
consists of a series of maps showing the average wind speeds at different
elevations for the entire province.  Although the maps only give the
average wind speed, the website's preamble states, "The wind resource
maps, combined with the power curve of available wind turbines, thus can
be used to estimate the electricity power production of a project."

This might be true if the maps supplied more than the average wind speed;
however, anyone considering siting more than a small wind turbine in their
backyard would be ill-advised to use these maps.

Fortunately, there are other sources of data that can be used to assist in
siting wind turbines in Nova Scotia.  The Nova Scotia Wind Energy Project
(NSWEP) has data for selected sites around the province, while the
Canadian Wind Energy Atlas website has gives wind speed distributions for
all of Canada, including Nova Scotia.  Interestingly, according to the
disclaimer associated with each map, the Canadian Wind Energy Atlas was
used in the creation of the Nova Scotia wind atlas.

Larry Hughes, PhD
Professor
Energy Research Group
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2X4
Canada

v: 902.494.3950
f: 902.422.7535
e: larry.hughes at dal.ca
u: http://lh.ece.dal.ca