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Strategic Focus
The following is a representative list of our historical projects by strategic area:
Testing Leading to Certification
Research, Development and Demonstration
Training, Outreach and Public Education
Historical- North-East Region Wind Integration Seminar [details »]
- International Business Development Agreement (IBDA) Trade Mission [details »]
Technical Consultation and Assistance
Prototype Testing Vestas V-90
 Within its Design and Verification program, Vestas has selected a site in close proximity to WEICan in order to host its first V90 prototype in North America. Among all the key criteria for such a location, the following were considered to be particularly significant: IEC class one wind regime, proximity to the sea, cold and harsh environment with significant annual temperature fluctuations.
The V90 3MW 60Hz turbine was erected and commissioned in the fall of 2003 by a service crew consisting of Danish, American and PEI Vestas technicians. In order to conduct proven performance measurements based on IEC standards, a MET tower was installed and instrumented to measure the wind characteristic at 80m hub height. Beside the power curve, noise and power quality measurements, design verification tasks have also been performed. The North Cape site has revealed itself to be a demanding environment that has proven it is suitable for Vestas to complete worthwhile measurements.
Pierre Marshall – Measurements specialist - Measurement and Verification department
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École de Technologies Supérieure (ÉTS)
 WEICan has installed three meteorological observation towers at WEICan for the École de Technologies Supérieure (ÉTS). These towers are equipped with cup anemometers and wind vanes at several heights, triaxial sonic anemometers, and temperature and pressure sensors. The data collected will be used for several research studies, a few of which are discussed below.
Firstly, the sensor arrangement allows for direct comparison between sonic and calibrated cup anemometer readings. The influence of turbulence and flow inclination on cup anemometry can be analyzed. The relationship between the true and measured velocity vectors can be determined and the impacts for power performance testing studied. The arrangement of the meteorological towers themselves has been chosen to study, among other phenomena, the development of wind turbine wakes. The structure of the wake and its dissipation has a significant influence on the performance of the wind park. Better understanding of wake interactions and wake structure could lead to better practices in wind park design.
Secondly, Instruments have been installed on the nacelle of one of the Vestas V47 turbines located on site. The instruments serve to monitor the wind speed downstream of the rotor and the yaw error of the machine. These measurements will serve to improve and validate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models used to generate the wind speed relations needed for nacelle anemometry. The ultimate goal is to combine the wake study and CFD simulations to determine the influence of wakes on nacelle anemometry practices. The measurement towers are also equipped to monitor the thermal stability of the surface layer. The influence of stability on turbine production and wake dissipation may be investigated in the future.
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Wind Diesel R&D
 Wind Diesel Technical Development has been a major activity at WEICan (formerly the Atlantic Wind Test Site [AWTS]) for nearly 15 years. The Wind-Diesel Development facility is one of the most advanced hybrid testing facilities in the world. In the mid-1990s WEICan, successfully carried out a number of studies on high penetration wind-diesel systems where the diesel engines were taken off-line and control systems installed to provide the voltage and frequency regulation.
The majority if the work has concentrated on the development of a Wind-Diesel Integrated Control System (WDICS), to fully integrate the operation of wind turbines with existing diesel plants. This technology has recently moved into the pre-commercial market with a demonstration project in Ramea, Newfoundland in which WEICan is involved [Ramea Wind-Diesel Project »]. WEICan will upgrade the current Wind Diesel facility for continued development of other wind diesel and hybrid systems.
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Universal Inverter
 Following a request for proposals in March 2005, to develop and test a 60kW Universal Inverter (UI), Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) awarded a contract to Cleanfield Energy in April 2005. This project has been jointly funded by Cleanfield Energy and NRCan.
Cleanfield Energy is a company located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada specializing in power electronics with its main business focus since 2000 on renewable energies. The UI prototype developed by Cleanfield was installed at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada (WEICan) in May 2006 and has undergone testing and evaluation.
The UI prototype is built on a product platform whose building blocks allow the development of an Inverter Product Family for wind turbine applications ranging from 30kW to 250kW. The UI was designed to work on a variety of generators (induction, synchronous with permanent magnets or field windings and DC) with the nominal stator frequency at 50Hz or 60Hz and with low speed direct shaft generators. The UI is expected to deliver the energy produced to a three-phase or single-phase grid or can work in an autonomous system and create its own three-phase or single-phase grid. In all situations, the grid frequency can be 50Hz or 60Hz.
WEICan has been and will continue to be involved in prototype development.
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Bio-Diesel Tests
 In 2005 WEICan engaged in a project with the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), to investigate the impact of increasing proportions of bio-diesel on the economy, performance and emissions of diesel engines. UPEI’s sophisticated gas analysis equipment allow for the simultaneous monitoring of emissions of NO, NO2, CO2, SO2, CO, and many other gases in order to compare the performance of engines running with petroleum vs. bio-diesel.
This work was performed on WEICan’s Wind-Diesel Test Facility for Natural Resources Canada.
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Dalhousie University Wooden Blade Fabrication
 The Wind Energy Institute of Canada (WEICan) completed a research study, in collaboration with Frontier Power Systems and Dalhousie University, to develop and test wind turbine blades fabricated from wood. Two blades were fabricated, as part of a Dalhousie University Mechanical Engineering Senior Project. These blades were tested on a 25 kW Wenvor wind turbine, located at North Cape for a period of six months in 2005. The performance of the blades was identical to the fiberglass blades usually used but there were some deficiencies identified in the fabrication process. The blades have been removed pending a review of the fabrication and material selection process.
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North-East Region Wind Integration Seminar
WEICan, in 2007, working closely with the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG-ECP) Conference, with financial assistance from ACOA and technical support from the US Utility Wind Integration Group (UWIG); hosted the ‘North-East Region Wind Integration Seminar’. This invitation-only seminar brought together senior management of all Eastern Canadian System Operators to explore actions that would facilitate the grid integration of wind energy in the North American North East. The findings of the seminar were collated by WEICan in consultation with the NEG-ECP and UWIG. A final report was prepared for ACOA and can be viewed at North East Region Wind Integration Final. The Northeast International Committee on Energy (NICE) has expressed an interest in the results.
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International Business Development Agreement (IBDA) Trade Mission
 This in-bound trade mission took place from September 30th to October 3rd, 2007. There were 39 attendees of whom 30 were from the private sector representing a total of 4 countries (Denmark, Germany, Canada and Australia). The trade mission took place in North Cape and then continued on to Quebec City where CanWEA was holding their annual conference. The mission aimed to promote the services of WEICan to those in attendance as well as provide an opportunity for Atlantic Canadian companies to gain a better appreciation of the opportunities in the wind energy industry.
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Ramea Wind Diesel Project
 WEICan has been an active participant in the Ramea Wind-Diesel Project. Ramea, an island off the coast of Newfoundland, is the location of this collaborative project between WEICan, Natural Resources Canada and Frontier Power Systems. This is Canada’s first medium penetration wind-diesel system.
The project has 6 - 65 kW wind turbines with a total generating capacity of 390 kW. They are connected to a utility grid with a daily peak load that varies from 300 kW to 1200 kW. This project is the culmination of three years of development work, at WEICan, in the development of an integrated control system that enables wind turbines to be fully integrated with diesel generating systems. The Ramea project uses the ‘Wind-Diesel Integrated Control System’ or ‘WDICS’, which has been developed at WEICan, in this medium penetration wind-diesel application. WDICS ensures that the wind power supplied to the utility is less than the specified minimum load for the diesel generators.
The Ramea project has been in operation since 2004 and development work is continuing to refine the technology for commercial deployment.
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North Cape Wind Farm
 WEICan was involved in the design, construction and operation of the North Cape Wind Farm (NCWF). The 10.56 MW wind plant, installed in 2001, consists of sixteen Vestas V-47 wind turbines each with a capacity of 660kW. The installation of the first commercial wind plant in Eastern Canada has been significant in many ways. Not only has it proven to be a good investment for the project owner - the people of PEI - it has been an effective demonstration of the economics of wind power and of the role that wind can play in the regional electricity grid.
The NCWF also provides a valuable platform for investigating the impact of wind turbines on grid stability and on the accuracy of wind forecasting models. Because the NCWF is publicly owned, the operating data is more freely available to research groups with an interest in exploring the impacts of the wind plant.
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