Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
Seven Stars Energy open house on Dec. 11, 2024, in Weyburn. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
There are two angles one should consider regarding wind power generation. In many ways, they are diametrically opposed, and yet both are correct.
One is the unreliability of wind. The other is the economic benefits.
I’ve written well over 100 stories talking about the unreliability of wind power generation. The most recent one this week pointed out that on Saturday, March 29, the entire fleet of wind turbines across Saskatchewan produced zero power for 18 hours. The 24 hour average output for the 817 megawatts of installed grid-scale wind capacity was a singular megawatt. The following day, they produced zero power for four hours.
But there are also days where we get an average of more than 600 megawatts from our growing wind fleet. Most days we do indeed get several hundred megawatts of power from the wind fleet. I don’t often write about that because it’s not noteworthy. Exceptional circumstances are, and they get headlines.
This brings us to the current battle over Enbridge’s Seven Stars Energy Project, a 200 megawatt wind power facility proposed for east of the city. There’s an RM of Weyburn meeting early Friday morning which will introduce a bylaw to amend an existing 2013 bylaw which currently limits the height of commercial wind turbines to 45 metres.
That’s a ridiculously low number, as the current state of the art turbines are in the range of 180 metres. That’s like limiting farm tractors in the RM to nothing bigger than a 1967 John Deere 4020. It’s obstructionist and ill-informed.
It reminds me of a story my Grade 12 history teacher told about “Japanese inspections.” Oh, sure, you can ship fresh produce like lettuce to Japan. But they’ll let it sit on the docks for two weeks in +35C weather before an inspector gets around to looking at it and clearing it.
(In the current trade war, this would be referred to as a “non-tariff measure.”)
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Here’s the reality – Weyburn is hard up right now. Driving down Weyburn streets is an exercise in dodging potholes. I spoke to someone yesterday who recently had to spend a pile of money on vehicle repairs on a vehicle that never really leaves town.
Weyburn streets are falling to pieces. This is an intersection downtown. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
Weyburn’s swimming pool is done for and shut down. Its skating rink is wobbling on its last legs. Clearly those who were responsible for maintaining civic facilities let things slide for too long without replacement.
And if you’re the RM of Weyburn, like any other RM that touches a small city, you can expect the city will be asking for a substantial contribution when they go to replace such things as the pool and rink. I saw it happen when I was covering North Battleford city council, and the same thing happens in Estevan. Such requests are as expected as snow in winter. Your citizens use our city’s facilities, bring a checkbook, please.
Big shift
On top of this, there’s a major change taking place in the oilpatch right now. The increasingly rapid adoption of large multilateral wells means for some oilfield services, they could see as much as a 75 per cent reduction in business.
For the last 15 years or so, much of southeast Saskatchewan’s oil activity was based on this formula: Every active drilling rig typically took a week or a bit less so to drill a typical well. That meant for every active drilling rig working, over the course of a month you could expect four leases to be built, four rig moves, four casings installed, four batches of drilling mud, four sets of drill bits, four times a service rig goes out to complete a well, etc.
But these massive multilaterals now have a generous provincial incentive makes incredibly attractive. Basically, you’re a fool if you’re not drilling multi-laterals. The new wells of this type can run several weeks to a month, or more. Based on a month per well, that means instead of four of each of those activities per rig, you’re getting one. And there are a lot of those businesses based in Weyburn and area that are being directly affected. They make up the bulk of the Weyburn oilpatch, and a lot of them are feeling the pinch.
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Salvation?
So along comes a project which, for a couple years at least, can provide some relief to some of those business, as well as an influx of cash into the community during construction. And its ongoing taxes paid to the RM will be a welcome addition, while ongoing landowner leases will substantially help those who sign up. For some people, those lease payments will be life changing.
That project is the Seven Stars Energy Project. The project was initially worked up by EDF, a mammoth energy company from France that also happens to run their nuclear fleet in addition to its substantial renewables portfolio. Last summer it sold the project to Enbridge, who in partnership with six Indigenous bands and organizations, are advancing the project to construction and operation.
The 200 megawatt wind project, made up of 46 turbines, is very comparable to the Bekevar Yotin Wind Facility near Kipling, just 100 kilometres to the northeast as the crow flies. That project cost around $345 million. You can expect costs have gone up since then. So while Enbridge hasn’t released the project cost yet, you can bet it’s going to be at least around a third of a billion, if not substantially more.
Enbridge has a substantial wind portfolio in Europe, particularly France, with over 2,000 megawatts nameplate capacity installed to date.
However, the opposition has been fierce, and at times, unhinged. I detailed it extensively in my previous column here.
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We rely on Enbridge
Let me point something out – except for some crude-by-rail at Lashburn and Hamlin, Saskatchewan, almost every other drop of oil produced by Saskatchewan is dependent on Enbridge. That means unless you’re working in northwest Saskatchewan, every oil related job, of every type, is 100 per cent dependent on Enbridge. That, in turn, means not just Weyburn, but all of the southeast, southwest, west central, and much of northwest Saskatchewan. The Regina Consumers Coop Refinery sits astride the mainline for a reason.
If your job, or your business, is in any way related to oil in this province, you depend on Enbridge. While there are many other businesses in every other aspect of the oilpatch, in Saskatchewan, there’s only one Enbridge. And it’s been that way for 75 years now.
Enbridge’s Alberta Clipper project in 2009, approximately 100 km northeast of Weyburn
And that reliance on Enbridge includes the province, as a whole, which this year will see around a billion dollars in royalties from oil.
The Government of Saskatchewan, like the Government of Alberta, is talking about growing our oil output substantially. Both Premier Moe and Premier Smith have talked about doubling their respective oil production in the coming years, although there’s a bit of walk-back to the original goal of 600,000 barrels per day for Saskatchewan. Still, that would be roughly 30 per cent expansion from our current 459,000 barrels per day. While Alberta has opportunities now to ship oil on the Trans Mountain Expansion, as well as Keystone, Express and Enbridge, in Saskatchewan, we really don’t. Until an Energy East Pipeline gets built, for us, it’s rail, Enbridge, or bust. And very little rail is used these days.
The bigger picture is if Saskatchewan is indeed intent to substantially grow its production, allowing it to pay for things like doctors, schools and roads, we need Enbridge to be amicable when it comes to adding pipeline capacity. If by some miracle we did double our oil production, we’d need to effectively double our pipeline takeaway capacity.
So if some other wind developer comes around and you feel like telling them to pound sand, fill your boots. But if it’s Enbridge, we should really reconsider before peeing in their cornflakes. When we come asking about pipeline expansion, and we will, we don’t want them to put the file at the bottom of the pile, or in File 13.
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Local dollars in pockets
Local contractors are working hard to get a piece of the action. Enbridge tells me the labour component alone for this project will be in the range of $75 million. While the turbines and the towers will be manufactured elsewhere, the civil groundwork will be happening right there. Local companies will have the opportunity to take part, if they can successfully win their respective bids.
And all the workers in the construction phase, be they local or temporary, will still need to sleep and eat and buy gas in and around Weyburn. It will be a welcome infusion to the community.
Most other municipalities and communities would see the prospects of a third of a billion dollar project as manna from heaven – God smiled upon them, glory to his name! Most economic development people, mayors, reeves and councilors across this country would see such a project as a dream come true.
So the RM of Weyburn has a choice – do they gladly invite Enbridge to spend their money in that community, or shoo them away? And when the City of Weyburn comes in short order asking for millions of dollars for a pool and rink, will the RM show them its empty wallet? Will the kids growing up in the RM go without a pool or rink as a result? Sorry, kids, we could have helped build you a new pool, but we chose another path. Good luck in the dugout.
So yes, if the 46 turbines are built east of Weyburn, there will be days there is no wind and no power produced. But there will also be days when there’s plenty of power fed to the grid. And that will be after many workers fed their families, paid their mortgages and bought supper at the local restaurant for the better part of two years during its construction. And several more families will be fed as their parents are ongoing maintenance staff for the life of the project. And taxes will be paid that will help pay for that pool and rink.
If Enbridge wants to infuse something to the tune of a third of a billion dollars, or more, into your community, let them. Don’t be a fool and turn away one of the biggest investments you’ll ever see in that area.
Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@pipelineonline.ca.