CanWEA puts on a happy face as it downgrades forecast

The Canadian Wind Energy Association has blown it's way into Ontario newspapers this week.

While they've managed to get many of their talking points in (ie. wind is cheaper than most new generation options ... ignoring you also need another new generaton option to accompany wind) the forecast figures reported in the Star are not only significantly lower than prior forecast, they are signifcantly lower than the total contracted capacity not yet constructed.

Wind power set to compete on cost, advocate says - thestar.com:

Ontario currently has just over 2,000 megawatts of installed wind power capacity, churned out by about 1,100 turbines.
Another 2,500 megawatts of wind projects is in the pipeline for installaton by 2016, Hornung said.

The Ontario government's Feed-in Tariff (FIT) review, earlier this year, reported; "Ontario on track to procure 10,700 MW of non-hydro renewable energy generation by 2015" - I had the impression approximately 8000MW of that would be wind.
The Ontario Power Authority's latest progress report noted 3835.2 MW of contracted supply under development, so CanWEA's words reported in the Star appear to support the rumours of high attrition rates in the FIT program, and also probably lowered expectations from the Korean Consortium.

CanWEA also breezed into the London Free Press working a newer angle; "... turbines don’t need water to work."

Turbines do need wind to work.

It's a peculiar angle to work in a jurisdiction rich in water but frequently lacking in significant wind, particularly when the periods of low wind resource coincide with times of peak demand in the summer as well as, less frequently, cold periods in the winter.