Officials for the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) Annual Conference and Exhibition in Toronto say they sold out all 350-booth spaces to 235 exhibitors at the September event. The attendee count topped 2,000. What’s more, the conference drew ten utility and commercial wind turbine OEMs, a list that includes Acciona, Enercon, GE, Mitsubishi, Northern Power, and Siemens.
TycoT-body arrester. Among many new devices on display at CanWEA 2009 was the Tyco T-body elbow arrester. The device is shielded and submersible, and meets performance requirements of IEEE C62.11.
In conferences, several executives expressed a need for the loosening of credit to grow the market, which remains slower than most expected this late in the year. There was talk of supply-chain expansion as foreign OEMs work to domesticate their versions while other firms look to get started in North America.
There was good news for Ontario. The parliament for Canada’s largest province passed legislation for a Feed-in-Tariff ($0.19/kWh by one account) that will encourage new wind installations by providing fixed prices for onshore and offshore wind parks for the next 20 years. The law also calls for 25% domestic content for Ontario projects. That provision got high scores from local manufacturers. I n addition to OEMs, a range of support companies displayed equipment such as:
• N RG Systems (nrgsystems.com), a manufacturer of met masts and related equipment, showed devices such as 95-in. mounting booms for sensors, and sensors that assess wind shear and turbulence and help calculate a total wind volume and density.
• Kluber Lubricants (kluber.com) had information on its oils and greases. Among its recent products were three synthetic lubricants for wind turbines.
• Thomas & Betts (meyersteelstructures.com) showed the Quickpin, one way to get away from slow-to-apply nuts and bolts that often attach line-support arms to power transmission towers. It is a long unthreaded pin placed in the same connection holes drilled for bolts, but secured without the precise torque required by conventional fasteners.
• Tyco Electronics (http://energy.tycoelectronics.com/elbow) introduced the 35 kV 600 Amp T-body elbow arrester. The device is intended to protect underground cables and high voltage apparatus from lightening and switching-transient surges.
• Carbone of America (carbonebrush.com) displayed several new slip-ring designs.
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