Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
KIPLING – On the day that SaskPower announced the addition of the new 200 megawatt Bekevar Wind Energy Facility to the grid, output at that wind farm totally died. It happened not just at Bekevar, but across the southern prairies.
That evening, Alberta’s 48 wind farms totaling a theoretical maximum output of 5,340 megawatt produced between 0 and five megawatts for at least three hours, from 8:44 p.m. until midnight. For most, if not all, of that first hour, wind output in Alberta was a big fat zero, just as it was at Bekevar in the late afternoon.
The power purchase agreement for Bekevar was reached with SaskPower in 2021. SaskPower only pays for renewable power when it is produced. It does not pay when there is no power. SaskPower did not build the facility, nor will it own or operate it.
But that does not mean no public dollars went into the project.
When Bekevar turned sod in late June, 2023, federal Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson was present. In addition to glad tidings, Wilkinson announced the federal government would be fronting Cowessess First Nation’s contribution to the facility – $50 million – for 17 per cent of the project. SaskPower requires a minimum of 10 per cent Indigenous ownership in all major wind and solar projects of this type.
Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson at the Bekevar Yotin Wind Facility, near Kipling, on June 29. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
That was money that came from Saskatchewan businesses via the “Output Based Pricing” scheme, a form of carbon tax on large CO2 emitters. According to then-Minister of Justice and Attorney General Bronwyn Eyre at the time, “That’s money that’s returned through money that was collected by the federal government under the output-based emitters and so on. And so, that is now also magnanimously returned to the province, and that’s what we saw announced at Kipling.”
The Canada Infrastructure Bank, a federal agency, was another investor in the project, to the tune of $173 million.
Developed by Renewable Energy Systems (RES), it was announced in 2023 that once the project is complete, it would be taken over by Innagreen. That company provides institutional investors with access to investments in utility-scale renewable energy projects. That company, in turn, is backed by global infrastructure asset manager, HRL Morrison & Co.
Bekevar Wind Energy Facility, Nov. 15, 2024. No wind meant not one of the 36 turbines was turning. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
SaskPower issued a press release on the morning of Friday, Nov. 15, celebrating the opening of the Bekevar wind farm.
It stated:
200-MW Bekevar Wind Facility Now Online
November 15, 2024
Construction of the new Bekevar Wind Energy Facility north of Moose Mountain Provincial Park is complete. Owned and operated by Bekevar Wind LP, a limited partnership between Innagreen Investments and Awasis Nehiyawewini Energy Development Limited Partnership (a wholly-owned Cowessess First Nation entity), the wind facility will provide up to 200 megawatts (MW) of emissions-free power to the grid.
SaskPower will purchase power generated at the facility though a 25-year agreement. At 200 MW, the facility can generate the equivalent amount of power needed for up to 100,000 homes.
“We are committed to achieving a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions power system, and we are on track to do so by 2050 or earlier,” said Rupen Pandya, SaskPower President & CEO. “Bekevar, which is Saskatchewan’s largest-ever renewable energy facility with Indigenous ownership, marks another important step toward that ambitious goal.”
SaskPower plans to add up to 3,000 MW of wind and solar generation by 2035, with 1,000 MW of wind and solar generation currently in various stages of development. For all current and future wind and solar competitions, SaskPower has included a requirement that proposals must have at least 10 per cent Indigenous ownership.
“We are excited to a part of this important initiative and to see it come to completion. As Indigenous people, we feel it is our duty to not only invest in clean energy, but to place ourselves front and centre as leaders in clean energy,” Chief Erica Beaudin of Cowessess First Nation. “Yotin (“wind” in Cree) plays an important role in our cultural ways of being and firmly believe this mighty spirit has many more teachings and blessings to bestow upon us all.”
“The completion of Bekevar exemplifies the strength of partnerships and innovating financing in driving Canada’s energy future,” said Olly Alexander, Innagreen CEO. “We are proud to work alongside Cowessess First Nation and RES to realize this important project, that will deliver tangible benefits locally for Cowessess First Nation members. Bekevar is our second project in Canada, and we remain focused on developing long-term partnerships that bring forward high quality projects for our investors.”
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Pipeline Online headed out to the Bekevar wind farm the same afternoon as the announcement. Arriving around 4:30 and leaving around 6:30 p.m., not one of the 36 turbines was observed turning that entire time, despite the fact it had been running the day before. Instead of powering 100,000 homes, the $300+ million wind farm had less output than an iPhone car charger.
A crew was observed at one of the southwest turbines, spreading topsoil around the lease with a dozer and excavator. Above them, the massive wind turbine, among the largest in Saskatchewan, didn’t move at all.
Yesterday, the Bekevar Wind Facility was brought online and will generate up to 200 megawatts. Consisting of 36 wind turbines, it is one of the province's largest wind generation facilities.
Executive Vice-President, Chief Strategy, Technology and Financial Officer, Troy King… pic.twitter.com/bjsUC8tRI9
— SaskPower (@SaskPower) November 15, 2024
Some days you win(d), some you don’t
It was an inauspicious opening day. The previous day a small ceremony was held at Bekevar, and on that day wind power generation was among the highest ever recorded across the province. According to SaskPower, peak hourly wind output averaged 622 megawatts. That’s out of a new total installed capacity of 818 megawatts. In other words, for that hour, wind was producing 76 per cent capacity. It was also more than the total installed capacity of grid-scale wind on the SaskPower grid prior to the activation of Bekevar.
Throughout the day, wind output averaged 416 megawatts, or almost exactly half of capacity.
However, in a 2:30 p.m. email from SaskPower, Friday’s lowest average wind power output was six megawatts, or 0.7 per cent of capacity.
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Windless across the prairies
An argument often made for wind power generation is that if it’s not blowing here, it’s blowing somewhere. So, build enough wind farms across a broad enough area, and you should get something.
But if you checked Windy.com on Friday evening, you would have found that wind speeds across the entire area of the southern prairies that’s dotted with grid-scale wind farms, the wind speed was just a few kilometres per hour. That’s an area from Pincher Creek, Alberta to St. Leon, Manitoba, including all wind farms in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Those “kettle lakes” are believed to have been left by the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet, about 15,000 years ago near Kipling. What caused that ice to melt, and would wind turbines have stopped it? Photo by Brian Zinchuk
Between glacial remnants
The turbines at the southwest corner of the facility were nestled between a number of kettle lakes, a geographic feature found throughout the Moose Mountain upland area of which Bekevar brushes up against. Kettle lakes were formed by the Laurentide ice sheet as it retreated from that area roughly 14,000 years ago, according to a map from the Saskatchewan Geological Survey.
The turbines, meant to prevent global warming, were juxtaposed between glacial remnants from global warming 14,000 years ago.
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Alberta could have had a reactor, or three
Over in Alberta, the 48 wind farms costing billions of dollars were still producing just five megawatts at 20 minutes after midnight, Saturday morning. And since the sun was over New Zealand at the time, solar was producing zero power, as it does every night.
MC is maximum capacity in megawatts, TNG is total net to grid, and DCR is dispatched and accepted contingency reserve. At 8:44 p.m. on Nov. 15, there was zero grid-scale wind and solar power on the Alberta grid. AESO
The Bekevar wind facility cost in excess of $300 million for 200 megawatts of nameplate capacity. The planned Estevan solar facility is expected to cost over $200 million for 100 megawatts of capacity. Using those rough numbers and extrapolating, Alberta’s 5,340 megawatts of wind would come in at roughly $8.01 billion, while the solar’s 1,810 megawatts would roughly come in at $3.61 billion. Together, that’s $11.62 billion.
While SaskPower won’t provide current numbers on the estimated cost of its planned 300 megawatt GE-Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactors, on the day they were announced, then-SaskPower Minister Don Morgan estimated they could cost up to $3 to $5 billion a piece, although the Ontario energy minister beside him suggested the price could be much lower, but Morgan re-asserted that could be the price. If you take the median of that – $4 billion per reactor, the roughly $11.6 billion could have purchased three reactors, providing 900 megawatts of baseload power. Alternatively, that dollar value would likely have purchase at least one Westinghouse AP1000 reactor capable of producing 1,200 megawatts and running over 95% of the time at last report.
As of 8:44 p.m. Friday evening, Alberta’s combined 7,152 megawatts of wind and solar were producing zero.
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