P.E.I.'s oldest wind farm set for overhaul as turbines near end of life

The P.E.I. Energy Corporation plans to replace turbines at the North Cape wind farm and the Aeolus turbine after roughly two decades of operation, and the provincial government has issued a tender for an environmental impact assessment.

The P.E.I. Energy Corporation is preparing to replace turbines at the North Cape wind farm and the Aeolus turbine on the province's northwestern tip. Those machines were installed in the early 2000s and have run nearly continuously for more than 20 years. Operators report increasing breakdowns and rising downtime that have reduced energy production. The provincial government has issued a tender for an environmental impact assessment to examine plans to retire and replace the aging turbines. Key facts: - North Cape has 16 turbines installed in two phases, in 2001 and 2003, and the Aeolus turbine was added in 2003 and retrofitted in 2007. - Current North Cape turbines are rated at 0.66 megawatts with 47-metre rotor diameters; the province's newer Eastern Kings turbines are cited as 4.2 megawatts with 138-metre rotors. - Reported annual production at North Cape declined from about 33 gigawatt hours to about 28 gigawatt hours, with increased downtime cited as a factor. - Newer turbine designs mentioned are larger, more weather-resilient, and include features intended to reduce maintenance downtime, such as elevators. - The project intends to reuse existing infrastructure where possible, including access roads, turbine pads and transmission lines, but the original turbines themselves cannot be reused because modern machines are larger. - Maritime Electric is required under provincial rules to purchase energy from the P.E.I. Energy Corporation; the utility noted that wind and solar are intermittent and do not by themselves solve capacity needs. Summary: The planned overhaul aims to replace aging machines with larger, more capable turbines while using existing site infrastructure where feasible. The government has issued an environmental impact assessment tender, the corporation plans to request quotes from manufacturers, and it hopes to complete repowering around 2029 or 2030.