Empowering Wind Energy Innovation Through Collaboration
McGill University and WEICan will hold the must-attend Spring 2026 CWERN Meeting as a hybrid event at McGill University in Montréal on April 29-30, 2026. This event, supported by Natural Resources Canada and McGill University, is the premier conference to bring together researchers, industry players, and policy makers dedicated to driving the development and growth of wind energy in Canada.
Conference Venue
The conference will be held in the Billiard Room at the McGill Faculty Club at 3450 McTavish Street, Montréal, Québec. For available parking, click here. If logistical support in travelling to or registering for this event is needed, please contact us.
Sponsored by:
Agenda
Wednesday April 29, 2026
*Please note: All times are in Montréal local time (GMT-4)
| 8:55-9:25 | Breakfast and Registration |
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| 9:25 | Opening: Marianne Rodgers, Wind Energy Institute of Canada and Sarah Jordaan, McGill University |
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| 9:30-11:00 | Grid Integration |
| 9:30 | GI1 – Liamm Mirza, Macie Orrell, Tarik Kaya, Edgar Matida, Ahmed Abdulla, Carleton University, Developing a novel airborne wind energy system to enhance wind power reliability in challenging environments |
| 9:45 | GI2 – Drew Gertz, North Wind Engineering & David Ting, Rupp Carriveau, University of Windsor, The overlooked strategic advantage of distributed wind in Canada |
| 10:00 | GI3 – Brendan Marshall, Kevin Pope, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Effects of energy export on wind power development in Newfoundland and Labrador |
| 10:15 | GI4 – Gerald Giroux, City of Summerside, Beat the Peak – How a utility is dealing with unprecedented loads |
| 10:30 | GI5 – Haifa Souifi, Nergica, Modelling and control architectures for hybrid power plants: Progress within IEA Wind TCP Task 50 WP4 |
| 10:45 | GI6 – Heather Norton, Marianne Rodgers, WEICan, Power indicators and renewable droughts – How consistent is your power supply? |
| 11:00 | Break |
| 11:15 – 12:30 | Offshore Wind |
| 11:15 | OW1 – Ian Maynard, Brynn Kennedy, Natural Resources Canada, CanmetENERGY Ottawa, Offshore wind farm layouts in NS |
| 11:30 | OW2 – Gemma Caesar, Natural Resources Canada, Canmet ENERGY Ottawa, Technical assessment for offshore wind development opportunities in Atlantic Canada’s gulf region |
| 11:45 | OW3 – Sven Scholtysik, Net Zero Atlantic, Integrating large-scale offshore wind development into the evolving electricity system of Atlantic Canada |
| 12:00 | OW4 – Nathaniel S. Pearre, Alexandra Pimentel, Lukas Swan, Dalhousie University, Maximizing the value to the grid of offshore wind in Nova Scotia, Canada |
| 12:15 | OW5 – Nathan de Matos, Steven Wong, Natural Resources Canada, CanmetENERGY Varennes, The role of offshore wind power in Eastern Canada |
| 12:30 – 2:00 | Lunch – Wind Turbine Data: AVEVA PI and Robbie Sanderson (WEICan) |
| 2:00 – 3:30 | Cold Climate |
| 2:00 | CC1 – Mohammadsadegh Moradi Ghareghani, Wing Yi Pao, Mohamed Elewah, Martin Agelin-Chaab, Horia Hangan, Ontario Tech University, Comparative analysis of indoor controlled climatic chamber and outdoor cold-climate testing under adverse weather conditions |
| 2:15 | CC2 – Kevin Golovin, University of Toronto, Turbine design combining ice detection, active de-icing, and an ice-phobic coating for year-round energy production in the Arctic |
| 2:30 | CC3 – Ali Ariana, Jianming Yang, Xili Duan, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Integrated analysis of blade icing effects on the vibro-impact dynamics of wind turbine planetary drivetrains |
| 2:45 | CC4 – Patrice Roberge, Icetek, Rethinking icing measurements for the site assessment of modern wind farms |
| 3:00 | CC5 – Michael Morin, Nergica, IEA Wind Ice loss method3.0: Improving icing loss assessment for cold climate wind energy |
| 3:15 | CC6 – Heather Norton, Marianne Rodgers, WEICan, Wind energy for remote northern communities |
| 3:30 | Break |
| 3:45 – 4:45 | Forecasting |
| 3:45 | FC1 – Kristen R. Schell, Mario Arrieta-Prieto, Carleton University, Spatio-temporal probabilistic prediction of wind velocity: Enhancing the value of wind power prediction using joint probabilistic predictions of speed and direction |
| 4:00 | FC2- Freddy Houdekindo, Taha B.M.J. Ouarda, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Improving near-surface reanalysis wind speeds through transformer-based bias correction |
| 4:15 | FC3 – Jean-Sébastien Giroux1, Thomas Forest2, Mathieu Prévost2, Francis Izquierdo-Bernier1,2, Guillem Candille3, Slavica Antic3, Simon-Philippe Breton1, Julie Carreau2,4,5, 1Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2Polytechnique, 3HydroQuébec, 4Mila-Quebec AI Institute, 5Group d’Études et de Recherche en Analyse des Décisions, Multi wind farms deep learning forecasting of wind power and operational events |
| 4:30 | FC4 – Julian Cardenas Barrera, University of New Brunswick, Operational metrics for wind ramp events |
| 4:45 – 5:00 | Research Facilities |
| 4:45 | RF1 – Jason Maas, Polar Canada, Research Projects and Partnerships at the Canadian High Arctic Research Station |
| 5:00 – 6:00 | Networking Event – Sponsored by McGill Énergie |
Thursday, April 30, 2026
| 8:55 – 9:25 | Breakfast and Registration |
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| 9:25 | Opening – Marianne Rodgers, WEICan & Sarah Jordaan, McGill University |
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| 9:30 – 10:30 | Offshore Wind 2 |
| 9:30 | OW6 – Ian Stewart, University of King’s College, Deborah Benkort, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Smarter & Faster: Streamlining impact assessment for offshore wind in NS |
| 9:45 | OW7 – Jeremy Parker, Stratum Dynamics, The calm weather paradox: How no wind conditions create counter-intuitive risks in offshore construction |
| 10:00 | OW8 – Zekai Chen, Ryozo Nagamune, University of British Columbia, Advanced data-driven control methods on wind farm control |
| 10:15 | OW9 – Deborah Benkort, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Modelling approach to evaluate the change in ecosystem dynamics due to development of offshore wind industry |
| 10:30 | Break |
| 10:45 – 12:00 | Social and Environmental Impact |
| 10:45 | SEI1 – Justin De Meulemeester, Britton Holman, Gaelle Onsdusek, Naomi Tony-Alabi, David Rosse, Maya Dwivedi-Leng, Sarah Jordaan, McGill University, The wind farm paper Trail: Building infrastructure datasets to drive environmental research |
| 11:00 | SEI2 – Tao Dai1, Jeya Maria Jose Valanarasu2, Yifan Zhao2, Shuwen Zheng2, Yinong Sun3, Vishal M. Patel2, Sarah M. Jordaan3, 1Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2Johns Hopkins University, 3McGill University, Land Resources for Wind Energy Development Requires Regionalized Characterizations |
| 11:15 | SEI3 – Mariam Hosny, Iyngaran Panchacharam, Sarah M. Jordaan, McGill University, Spatiotemporal life cycle assessment of electricity generation from wind energy |
| 11:30 | SEI4 – Maya Dwivedi-Leng, Iyngaran Panchacharam, Sarah Jordaan, McGill University, Evaluating the technical, environmental and financial feasibility of redeveloping end-of-life wind farms in Ontario, Canada |
| 11:45 | SEI5 – Étienne Coulombe-Lamarche1, Philippe Cambron1,2, André Bégin-Drolet1, 1Université Laval, 2Innergex, Development of simple models for the residual useful life of wind turbine towers |
| 12:00 | Lunch |
| 1:00 | End of Day 2 |
