Grouse Mountain wind turbine stalled
Posted April 13, 2010 8:29 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NORTH VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Grouse Mountain’s new wind turbine has been ready to produce energy since February 1st, but the mountain says BC Hydro is refusing to give the go ahead for the generator to start making juice.
BC Hydro’s Dag Sharman says important monitoring and harmonizing equipment still needs to be installed. “These are safety requirements that protect our customers on the North Shore, as well as our equipment and our crews.”
But Chris Dagenais with Grouse Mountain says that equipment is already in place, it’s just not the way BC Hydro would have set it up. “I guess they’ve got a very prescribed and one-size-fits all approach to people who are generating power independently. All we’re saying is: this is brand new technology, can we just look at this objectively and say if we’re achieving the same ends you require, does it matter how we get to those ends?”
Hydro says Grouse was aware of construction requirements before the project was built, and it won’t sign off on the deal until all requirements are met.
Dagenais wants BC Hydro to be a little more flexible. “As an independent purveyor we’re beginning to see why this sort of thing isn’t as common as it should be because there’s an awful lot of red tape.”
If it was running the turbine could produce up to 25% of the mountain’s annual power. Dagenais says it was an icon during the 2010 Games and he is hoping Hydro will show more support for the green initiative
