Canada’s wind industry is on the way to a record-breaking year with almost a billion dollars invested and a doubling of installed wind capacity. And experts are predicting that sometime over the next decade, this country will begin to produce more electricity from wind power than from natural gas. ‘Wind generation has moved out of the margins and into the mainstream in Canada,’ says Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA). CanWEA represents more than 250 wind energy companies including wind turbine and component manufacturers, wind energy project developers, electric utilities and service providers. Pincher Creek turbines deliver some of the 354.97 MW of wind energy Alberta produces. Federal policy is one of the current challenges to the industry, says Hornung. Funds in the federal Wind Power Production Incentive program (WPPI), which has subsidized a portion of the cost of establishing wind farms since 2001, have been frozen since April as the Conservative government hammers out its energy and environmental policies. Developers across the country are committed to start projects after winning competitive power supply contracts based on bids in which the WPPI funds were calculated as part of projected […]