Wind-Generated Electricity to Power Calgary’s C-Train
By Ron Collins
Calgary Transit
Calgary, AL
C-Train light rail customers in Calgary will being “Riding the Wind!” in September, when Calgary Transit becomes the first public transit system in North America to power its light rail transit system with wind-generated electricity. This program, being developed in partnership with Vision Quest Windelectric and Enmax, will provide 100 percent pollution-free operation on the system.
Under the new, innovative program, Vision Quest has installed 12 additional turbines at its wind farm in southern Alberta and is selling wind-generated power to Enmax, Calgary Transit’s supplier of electricity. The entire 100 car C-Train fleet will be driven by wind power, resulting in no pollutants being released into the environment.
The elimination of emissions from the C-Train system is expected to contribute significantly to the city of Calgary’s goal to reduce its corporate carbon dioxide emissions.
“We are a leader in this area, and proud of the fact that our customers can ride the C-Train knowing we have taken this significant step towards reducing the environmental impact of urban transportation,” said Calgary Transit General Manager John Hubbell.
In May, Calgary Transit’s “Ride the Wind” project received a Federation of Canadian Municipalities CH2M HILL Sustainable Community Award for leadership in renewable energy.
The use of wind-generated electricity to power the C-Train system will avoid the annual generation of 26,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide that would have been produced by the burning of coal or natural gas for the generation of electricity for the system. This is equivalent to eliminating 7.5 million vehicle trips in Calgary annually. Levels of other pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide, will also be reduced.
The program also is expected to provide greater budget stability for Calgary
WOW! now if they could only convince the people who take their cars and get subsidized parking(perks) downtown to take the train. I met so many people in Calgary who have lived there for years and have never ridden a bus or the c-train, the traffic in Calgary now is so bad and gets worse every day. Calgary was told before c-train construction that the system would never work regardless of how much money they poured into it(and they poured a LOT of money in) this proved true.
All this is wonderful, now comes the reality, Just what is the cost from day one to the present, including massive expansion, new equipment, total maintenance etc etc etc etc etc and ALL costs associated including the cost of purchasing electricity from windfarms. This figure(if ever published) will be so astronomical as not to be believed. There has to be a limit to any system and you can believe the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the C-train will result in many other facilities suffering, regardless of the vast wealth created by the oil patch.
There was a brief period where the Twin City Rapid Transit streetcar lines were powered solely by a water powered generating plant on the Mississippi River at St.Anthony falls in Minneapolis. However the system (and the cities) got too big quite soon after and coal burning plants had to be built.
Stop and add up the money spent on buying R/W, grading, paving, restriping, repaving, plowing snow, providing police and EMTs that are spent on supplying streets for people to drive on. The cost of the C-line will pale in comparision.
…Wind powered generators are springing up in many locations. I’ve witnessed a group of them near my home area of Somerset, Pa.
They are operational now for several years and seem to be successful as more are in the planning stage and to be built in the general area.
They seem to run rather consistently…I’ve been right to the sight and witnessed their operation and they do so without much noise at all. Info on a display at the sight indicates they will operate in winds of 8 to 55 mph. And controlled {directionally, etc. by computers}, for any direction of winds.
Hopefully that system and many others springing up around the country are powering all kinds of operations that would be burning foriegn oil imports if they were not up and running.
Technically the Monorail in Seattle is powered entirely by hydro-electric power made in the dams on Washington state rivers. (I am pretty sure that Seattle gets all of its electricity from hydro-electric dams.)
Having wind powered trains is a great idea. Windmills if they are put up in the right areas should be ablt to produce plenty of electricity to run a train.
I thought is was a wacky idea when our local hospital received a grant of a kajillion dollars for a wind turbine. Then I looked at my new power bill after the rate freeze was lifted in Illinois. I lost my rate for electric heat. My monthly budget billing went from $83 to $203. Wish I had one of dem windmills now.
I’d be willing to bet that the power generated by the turbines when in normal operation will exceed the needs of the transit line, resulting in a credit they will draw from when there is no wind and they have to take power from the grid.
Capital and maintenance costs nowithstanding, you can’t get get any freer power.
One planned wind farm in my area is getting substantial opposition. They cite visual pollution, a danger to birds and the endangered brown bat. I think the turbines I’ve seen around here (and we have a major installation just to the south) are quite graceful. When you factor in that they are generating pollution-free power, a little visual pollution is nothing. Better the turbines than a big coal-fired power plant. NIMBY, BANANA…
…I really can’t fully understand why so many are against producing power from wind powered generators…
They seem harmless enough to me and I’ve been right to their base and witnessed their operation several times.
They make min. noise and what danger they create is lost on the way I see them.
The sites are chosen carefully so there is a wind strong enough to move the massive blades {some 95’ in length}, to turn the generator. a high % of the time. As I mentioned before the ones I witnessed will run in a wind 8 to 55 mph to do the work they are designed to do.
They stand there gracefully and their blades rotate and not much else happens as they do their work of producing power to feed into a grid system. Pollution free.
If the customer is using more than they produce the power will be taken from the grid as stated above, etc…Probably most are connected to the grid in the first place and simply add to the supply on the grid available for general use.
I have noticed those things as well. They are quiet and graceful. They are generating power pollution-free. However, enviromentalists have problems with these as well because they are a ‘visual pollutant’. (I had to read that several time because I thought they were kidding at first). Enviros also claim that wind turbines kill all kinds of birds. I have even heard some emotionally charged individuals sobbing (yes sobbing) that wind turbines would kill millions of birds annually. They were wondering-as the tears were streaming down their faces-how we could be so hateful and hurtful that we would willingly kill all these birds just to produce electricity.
This occured during WE Energies’ recent proposal to build additional wind farms around Allen
One merely needs to visit the site of a radio transmission tower (which utilizes guy lines to keep it upright) to realize that birds are already being killed by the millions.
…That really is silly of being afraid of massive bird kills as the blades rotate. So silly. Those blades rotate at a leisurely speed that I’m sure birds are able to determine to stay clear of them.
Birds having the ability to fly {and stay alive through it all}, I’m sure they would be able to “see” those rotating blades as to not try to land on them…So silly.
As for being a visual pollutant…{The wind mill towers and blades, etc…}, I for sure can’t see it. They just stand gracefully out in a field or hill top and do the job of producing power almost silent. The power lines are even buried in the group that I am familiar with back in my home area in Somerset Co., Pa.
I realize one can’t please everyone with the same ideas and process but this is just my opinion on these machines that produce pollution free electricity.
DF Not the same thing. The blades are visible, just like a hawk. Wires are hard to see. I have visited the wind farms in NW Iowa, walking around below them. I saw birds in the air and not a dead one anywhere. If they miss my truck, they can miss a prop. Maybe it is the motion that the birds detect.