On Tuesday, August 2, the Wind Energy Institute of Canada (WEICan) celebrated its 16th anniversary and the 41st anniversary of the Atlantic Wind Test Site (AWTS). The celebration was originally planned to be held in summer 2021 but had to be delayed a year due to COVID-19. The anniversary celebration was held in conjunction with WEICan’s annual general meeting, which was held in Mill River, PEI.
The celebration began in the afternoon when community members and stakeholders were invited to WEICan’s site to view the infrastructure and meet current and past employees and collaborators.
Members of the current WEICan Board of Directors were able to reflect on the history of the Institute with all in attendance. In the evening a reception was held at Mill River Resort which was emceed by WEICan CEO, Scott Harper. Attendees at the reception included current and former WEICan and AWTS staff, Board members, and collaborators.

The reception program began with welcoming messages from Robert J. Morrissey, Member of Parliament for Egmont and the Honourable Steven Myers, Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Action for PEI. Mr. Morrissey was present at the opening for AWTS and spoke about how pleased he has been to see them maintain leadership for 41 years in wind energy development. Minister Myers spoke about how Prince Edward Island is proud to have played a role in the development of the wind energy industry as home to Canada’s official Wind R&D site.

Former leaders of AWTS also spoke at the reception. Malcolm Lodge designed, developed, and managed AWTS for 10 years. Carl Brothers was the General Manager of AWTS for 18 years. They each described their early experiences in establishing AWTS and the opportunities they saw.

About AWTS and WEICan

AWTS was established in 1981 as Canada’s National Wind Energy Laboratory. AWTS was a subsidiary of the PEI Energy Corporation and obtained operating income from the governments of Canada and PEI and from contract research and testing work. With funding from ACOA, the government of PEI, and Natural Resources Canada, WEICan was established in 2006 on the former AWTS site as a facility designed to propel growth and development in wind energy. WEICan is an independent, non-profit organization governed by a volunteer board of directors. WEICan works in close collaboration with many partners including universities, colleges and other research
institutions; private sector companies, governments, and utilities. Funding for WEICan is mainly from sales of electricity from WEICan’s 10 MW Wind R&D Park.

WEICan’s location in North Cape, PEI with 300o of ocean exposure and average wind speeds of 8.9 m/s at 80 m makes it an ideal place to research wind turbines. Learn more about WEICan.

For more information please contact:

Marianne Rodgers
WEICan
(902)-882-2746