The arrival of wind power on the North coast may yet be a ways off, but the concept of harnessing the win is attracting attention across the Nation. From the Vancouver Sun to the Toronto Stock Market, those coastal winds are making news it seems.
Below we cull a story from Vaughn Palmer of the Vancouver Sun, which examines the current interest in green energy and how it may impact on British Columbia. A little further below we provide a couple of stories from the financial pages of both the Globe and Mail and the National Post, which examines the interest in the Naikun project.
The prospect of wind farms on the North coast may be funded from stock market watchers across the continent. The national Post featured the Naikun wind farm development in its Traders Desk feature.
The talk on Naikun has been getting an added bit of polish from a securities analyst who has listed the Naikun stock as a “buy”, with shares going for $2.80 per share, cashing in your pop cans and reinvesting in the wind might very well pay off in the years to come!
Wind power the latest energy darling at the green debutantes' ball
Vaughn Palmer
Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
VICTORIA - The B.C. push for green sources of electricity appears to have generated unprecedented interest in developing wind power.
Eight major projects are before the provincial environmental assessment office in either the preliminary or subsequent stages of review and approval.
Together they offer several billion dollars in investment, hundreds of construction jobs and enough electrical capacity to make B.C. a national leader in wind-driven power generation.
North Coast Wind Energy is proposing a giant wind farm -- more than 200 turbines spread over 7,000 hectares -- on Banks Island, south of Prince Rupert.
The site would be linked via overland and undersea cable to the provincial power grid at Kitimat. Capacity would be 700 megawatts (MW) -- enough to power a city of 200,000 homes -- and that would only be the first instalment.
The company envisions second and third phases of equal or greater size, with the first phase alone budgeted at $1.4 billion.
While Banks Island is still in the planning stage, the company is going ahead with a modest (25- MW) wind farm at Mount Hays near Prince Rupert.
Also thinking big is NaiKun Wind Development, with plans for an offshore wind farm between Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) and the mainland.
The first phase calls for 110 turbines atop 100-metre pylons in the relatively shallow waters of Dogfish Banks, off Naikoon Park and north of the ferry route linking the islands and mainland.
Subsequent phases would add another 440 turbines, pushing the capacity to 1,750 MW, with an eventual price tag of several billion dollars.
Undersea cables would link the turbines to both the islands and the mainland. The Haida First Nation has praised the project for offering energy self-sufficiency to the islands.
But the goal is to generate power for well beyond the region: "Supplying the increasing demand for electrical power in Western Canada and the United States," as the draft terms of reference puts it.
A third project, the $1-billion Nahwitti Wind Farm, would place 250 wind turbines on a site northwest of Port Hardy at the north end of Vancouver Island. Capacity: 450 MW.
Though the coast may seem to offer the most obvious locations for wind farms, some of the most promising sites are atop ridges in the northeast.
Finavera Renewables has proposed building four ridge-top generating stations -- with a combined 370-MW capacity -- near Chetwynd and Tumbler Ridge. Estimated cost: $800 million.
The environmental assessment office is also reviewing a proposal for a 120-MW wind park on a site southwest of Dawson Creek. It is budgeted at about a quarter of a billion dollars.
All this, as noted, is subject to environmental approval. And though wind power is both renewable and emissions-free, it raises other environmental concerns.
Wind turbines are noisy. Some say they are also ugly. They pose a threat to wildlife, particularly migrating birds, but also marine life in the case of the offshore sites.
Then there's the dreaded Wind Turbine Syndrome, which reputedly afflicts those living within three kilometres of the low-frequency vibrations from the turbines.
Symptoms include sleep disruption, headaches, dizziness, exhaustion, lack of concentration and miscellaneous anxieties.
Opponents of wind power, citing the "precautionary principle," argue that the farms should be located far away from population centres and wildlife habitation, or scrapped altogether.
Many of the alleged downsides of wind power are disputed. For instance, advocates say that the average family cat will kill more birds in a year than the average turbine -- and the turbine doesn't make a practice of delivering the dismembered corpses to your bed or the dinner table.
In any event, it is worth noting that the environmental assessment office has already certified several wind energy projects.
Just last year, Dokie Wind Energy was greenlighted for a 300-MW facility southwest of Hudson's Hope and a 70-MW farm southeast of Chetwynd.
Worth noting, too, that certification does not necessarily mean the project will be built. Other approvals are necessary, the key one being a nod from the provincial utilities commission.
Economic considerations can intervene as well. The environmental assessment office certified two wind farms for the northern end of Vancouver Island in 2004, but neither has gone ahead.
One, a proposed 60-MW facility near Holberg, was cancelled after the developer concluded that the cost of producing power would be greater than the returns.
Wind power, being intermittent, fetches lower prices in the open market than more reliable (albeit more polluting) sources.
But with the government-led drive for greener sources of power, the economics are shifting as well, and at least some of the current spate of wind power projects will likely go ahead.
NaiKun target takes flight
Globe and Mail
Leonard Zehr, July 5, 2007 at 1:57 PM EDT
Cormack Securities says NaiKun Wind Energy Group Inc. is in a “very good position to win a power purchase agreement” for 320-megawatts to 700-megawatts in this year’s call for bids to supply hydro to British Columbia from an offshore wind power farm near Prince Rupert.
That said, analyst MacMurray Whale has blown his target price on the stock through the roof, going to $6 from $2.20, reflecting sharply higher multiples to net asset value on each potential phase of the company’s development.
“We are giving value for the future phases because we believe the market will begin to place value on the entire pipeline following the success on the bid for the first phase within the next 12 months,” he writes.
The shares are trading at $2.79 on the TSX Thursday afternoon, up 9 cents. They were as low as 17.5 cents a year ago and recently touched a high of $3.18.
Naikun has wind at its back
FP Trading Desk
National Post
David Pett
July 5. 2007
Naikun Wind Energy Group Inc. (NKW/TSXv) is in line to win a lucrative power contract expected to be awarded in the next twelve months by the province of British Columbia, according to Cormark Securities analyst MacMurray Whale.
If successful, NaiKun, a Vancouver-based power developer, would utilize some of the power potential from its current offshore wind project near Prince Rupert in an area known as the Haida Energy Field. Fully harnessed, the project is expected to support up to 1,750 megawatts of power capacity over 10 years.
"Offshore wind development is expensive and has higher costs and development risks than onshore, but with strong management team, backing of the Council of Haida Nation and a partnership with ENMAX, we believe [Naikun] is in a very good position to win a power purchase agreement for 320 megawatts to 700 megawatts in the upcoming BC Call for Power." Mr. Whale told clients.
As a result of the anticipated contract, he increased his net asset value for the company and bumped his price target from $2.20 to $6. He has a "buy" rating on the stock.
Naikun shares closed at $2.80 Thursday.
David Pettdpett@nationalpost.com
Below we cull a story from Vaughn Palmer of the Vancouver Sun, which examines the current interest in green energy and how it may impact on British Columbia. A little further below we provide a couple of stories from the financial pages of both the Globe and Mail and the National Post, which examines the interest in the Naikun project.
The prospect of wind farms on the North coast may be funded from stock market watchers across the continent. The national Post featured the Naikun wind farm development in its Traders Desk feature.
The talk on Naikun has been getting an added bit of polish from a securities analyst who has listed the Naikun stock as a “buy”, with shares going for $2.80 per share, cashing in your pop cans and reinvesting in the wind might very well pay off in the years to come!
Wind power the latest energy darling at the green debutantes' ball
Vaughn Palmer
Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
VICTORIA - The B.C. push for green sources of electricity appears to have generated unprecedented interest in developing wind power.
Eight major projects are before the provincial environmental assessment office in either the preliminary or subsequent stages of review and approval.
Together they offer several billion dollars in investment, hundreds of construction jobs and enough electrical capacity to make B.C. a national leader in wind-driven power generation.
North Coast Wind Energy is proposing a giant wind farm -- more than 200 turbines spread over 7,000 hectares -- on Banks Island, south of Prince Rupert.
The site would be linked via overland and undersea cable to the provincial power grid at Kitimat. Capacity would be 700 megawatts (MW) -- enough to power a city of 200,000 homes -- and that would only be the first instalment.
The company envisions second and third phases of equal or greater size, with the first phase alone budgeted at $1.4 billion.
While Banks Island is still in the planning stage, the company is going ahead with a modest (25- MW) wind farm at Mount Hays near Prince Rupert.
Also thinking big is NaiKun Wind Development, with plans for an offshore wind farm between Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) and the mainland.
The first phase calls for 110 turbines atop 100-metre pylons in the relatively shallow waters of Dogfish Banks, off Naikoon Park and north of the ferry route linking the islands and mainland.
Subsequent phases would add another 440 turbines, pushing the capacity to 1,750 MW, with an eventual price tag of several billion dollars.
Undersea cables would link the turbines to both the islands and the mainland. The Haida First Nation has praised the project for offering energy self-sufficiency to the islands.
But the goal is to generate power for well beyond the region: "Supplying the increasing demand for electrical power in Western Canada and the United States," as the draft terms of reference puts it.
A third project, the $1-billion Nahwitti Wind Farm, would place 250 wind turbines on a site northwest of Port Hardy at the north end of Vancouver Island. Capacity: 450 MW.
Though the coast may seem to offer the most obvious locations for wind farms, some of the most promising sites are atop ridges in the northeast.
Finavera Renewables has proposed building four ridge-top generating stations -- with a combined 370-MW capacity -- near Chetwynd and Tumbler Ridge. Estimated cost: $800 million.
The environmental assessment office is also reviewing a proposal for a 120-MW wind park on a site southwest of Dawson Creek. It is budgeted at about a quarter of a billion dollars.
All this, as noted, is subject to environmental approval. And though wind power is both renewable and emissions-free, it raises other environmental concerns.
Wind turbines are noisy. Some say they are also ugly. They pose a threat to wildlife, particularly migrating birds, but also marine life in the case of the offshore sites.
Then there's the dreaded Wind Turbine Syndrome, which reputedly afflicts those living within three kilometres of the low-frequency vibrations from the turbines.
Symptoms include sleep disruption, headaches, dizziness, exhaustion, lack of concentration and miscellaneous anxieties.
Opponents of wind power, citing the "precautionary principle," argue that the farms should be located far away from population centres and wildlife habitation, or scrapped altogether.
Many of the alleged downsides of wind power are disputed. For instance, advocates say that the average family cat will kill more birds in a year than the average turbine -- and the turbine doesn't make a practice of delivering the dismembered corpses to your bed or the dinner table.
In any event, it is worth noting that the environmental assessment office has already certified several wind energy projects.
Just last year, Dokie Wind Energy was greenlighted for a 300-MW facility southwest of Hudson's Hope and a 70-MW farm southeast of Chetwynd.
Worth noting, too, that certification does not necessarily mean the project will be built. Other approvals are necessary, the key one being a nod from the provincial utilities commission.
Economic considerations can intervene as well. The environmental assessment office certified two wind farms for the northern end of Vancouver Island in 2004, but neither has gone ahead.
One, a proposed 60-MW facility near Holberg, was cancelled after the developer concluded that the cost of producing power would be greater than the returns.
Wind power, being intermittent, fetches lower prices in the open market than more reliable (albeit more polluting) sources.
But with the government-led drive for greener sources of power, the economics are shifting as well, and at least some of the current spate of wind power projects will likely go ahead.
NaiKun target takes flight
Globe and Mail
Leonard Zehr, July 5, 2007 at 1:57 PM EDT
Cormack Securities says NaiKun Wind Energy Group Inc. is in a “very good position to win a power purchase agreement” for 320-megawatts to 700-megawatts in this year’s call for bids to supply hydro to British Columbia from an offshore wind power farm near Prince Rupert.
That said, analyst MacMurray Whale has blown his target price on the stock through the roof, going to $6 from $2.20, reflecting sharply higher multiples to net asset value on each potential phase of the company’s development.
“We are giving value for the future phases because we believe the market will begin to place value on the entire pipeline following the success on the bid for the first phase within the next 12 months,” he writes.
The shares are trading at $2.79 on the TSX Thursday afternoon, up 9 cents. They were as low as 17.5 cents a year ago and recently touched a high of $3.18.
Naikun has wind at its back
FP Trading Desk
National Post
David Pett
July 5. 2007
Naikun Wind Energy Group Inc. (NKW/TSXv) is in line to win a lucrative power contract expected to be awarded in the next twelve months by the province of British Columbia, according to Cormark Securities analyst MacMurray Whale.
If successful, NaiKun, a Vancouver-based power developer, would utilize some of the power potential from its current offshore wind project near Prince Rupert in an area known as the Haida Energy Field. Fully harnessed, the project is expected to support up to 1,750 megawatts of power capacity over 10 years.
"Offshore wind development is expensive and has higher costs and development risks than onshore, but with strong management team, backing of the Council of Haida Nation and a partnership with ENMAX, we believe [Naikun] is in a very good position to win a power purchase agreement for 320 megawatts to 700 megawatts in the upcoming BC Call for Power." Mr. Whale told clients.
As a result of the anticipated contract, he increased his net asset value for the company and bumped his price target from $2.20 to $6. He has a "buy" rating on the stock.
Naikun shares closed at $2.80 Thursday.
David Pettdpett@nationalpost.com
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