Unique Winds over The Great Lakes.
The winds over The Great Lakes offer more powerful and reliable energy than most offshore locations worldwide. Higher wind speeds, better wind consistency and greater air density all make the winds of The Great Lakes an exceptional source of clean, safe, powerful, perpetual and reliable energy. U.S. Great Lake States continue to actively accelerate their own offshore wind developments;.
There are many factors that affect the feasibility of a wind farm including construction costs, proximity to sufficient grid capacity and the strength and continuity of the wind resources. The desired location is that which incorporates all of the above factors - particularly superior wind resources - to ensure the generation of reliable and economical offshore wind energy.
Trillium Power's management team has been working on offshore wind development activities in The Great Lakes for nearly 17 years and has registered several of the best locations in The Great Lakes region. Trillium Power's wise and steady activities over many years placed Ontario in the leading group of the global offshore wind sector until February 11, 2011 when the Government of Ontario illegally moved to confiscate all Offshore Wind sites on Ontario's side of The Great Lakes.
Trillium Power Wind 1, located in the Trillium Power Energy Field, is the first of our preferred offshore wind development locations in The Great Lakes. As you would expect, it has exceptional wind resources. Trillium Power has harnessed its extensive offshore wind knowledge to identify and obtain the exclusive rights to 3 additional unique offshore wind sites in The Great Lakes. Trillium Power has completed 104 studies, reports and regulatory actions necessary to carefully move forward with its conscientiously sited TPW1 offshore wind site.
On February 11, 2011, while Trillium Power was closing a $26 million financing, an action that Premier McGuinty and several of his Ministers of the Ontario Government had been apprised of in advance, the Ontario Government abruptly cancelled all offshore wind developments in The Great Lakes and confiscated all registered offshore wind sites and all data that had been developed at substantial cost to offshore wind investors in Ontario. Naturally, domestic and global investors were shocked at Ontario's reckless actions that had the effect of destroying many years worth of work and effort for short-term election planning in other areas of Ontario.
As this situation was not quickly corrected by the Ontario Government, many thousands of sustainable, long-term manufacturing, construction and other jobs that would normally have been created by Trillium Power's 4 offshore wind projects were destroyed. According to a non-partisan Conference Board of Canada Report (CBoC) only 2,000 MW of offshore wind development in Ontario would create 6,500 permanent manufacturing jobs and over 62,000 person-years of construction and other employment.
Ontario's new government, led by Premier Wynne, is a breathe of fresh air. This new government has an opportunity to correct the mistakes of the preceding government. Ontario has an opportunity to partner with Trillium Power, North America's Offshore Wind pioneer, to develop TPW1 (Trillium Power Wind 1) as a commercial-scale far-offshore wind pilot project. In addition to providing the province with a research and development platform TPW1 will be the catalyst for thousands of well-paying, sustainable jobs for Ontarians.
Annual directives to the Ontario Power Authority request a minimum of 50% of the electricity supply mix from expensive, heavily subsidized and extremely risky nuclear power. The directive also states that "the Government will pursue this procurement where it can be achieved in a cost-effective manner". Unfortunately, for Ontarians, an independent analysis of the 'cost-effectiveness' of nuclear power is never undertaken - because it would show that renewable energy would be far, far less expensive than nuclear power.
Ontario should be learning from Germany, a renewable energy leader, and phasing out all nuclear facilities using a well-defined defined timetable.
Together, Trillium Power's 4 projects will generate approximately 3.5 GW (3,500 MW) of clean, reliable and affordable energy for all Ontarians.
