Yukon Energy is embarking on a $700,000 research effort to test the viability of a wind farm on Mount Sumanik, the corporation’s president said Friday.

Andrew Hall said the publicly owned utility needs to know Sumanik’s potential before it can determine how to proceed with its desire to bring on wind energy as part of its generating capacity to meet base load requirements.

Yukon Energy already has a volume of data from the Tehcho (Ferry Hill) site overlooking Stewart Crossing, he told reporters at a press conference to announce the Mount Sumanik initiative.

Before it can determine which of the sites to invest in, if either, it needs to collect an equal amount of information for Sumanik, as well as update the Tehcho project, he said.

The intent is to have enough information in 18 months so that the board of directors is able to make a decision whether to proceed with wind, and if so, whether to go with Tehcho or Mount Sumanik, Hall said.

“We have gathered most of the data from the Tehcho site and we are looking to collect the same amount of information for Mount Sumanik.”

The corporation’s president explained that updating the Tehcho data involves factoring in the advancements in technology that are occurring at a very rapid pace.

To make wind a viable option for the Yukon’s grid will likely involve some sort of ability to store energy when the wind is blowing so that it’s available when it’s not, he explained.

Hall noted California is currently making advancements in battery storage at the grid-scale level.

Because of the unreliable nature of the renewable resource, there has to be some means of compensating for a sudden loss of wind, or a sudden spike in velocity, he said.

Hydro generation, Hall explained, can be called upon to pick up the slack to some degree, but there also has to be some other mechanism to balance out the load when the wind dies down.

He said to some degree, a fierce increase in wind speed can be even more untenable than a loss of wind.

With a decrease in wind speed, the turbines gradually slow, but with a drastic increase, the turbines will shut down quickly to protect themselves, Hall explained.

He said wind speeds, battery storage and even the cost of road access are the types of data Yukon Energy needs to collect at Mount Sumanik in order to provide the board of directors with the information it requires to make a decision.

There is no road to the Mount Sumanik site, so the cost of road construction needs to be built into the cost estimate, Hall explained. He said while there is a road to Tehcho, it would most likely need serious upgrading.

“We have 18 months of work to do before we can make a site selection.”

Hall said the corporation is looking for five to 10 megawatts of new generation in the short- to mid-term to ensure it can keep pace with demand, and wind is one of the options available.

Currently, hydro generation is tapped out during peak demand, but there is time to pursue new alternatives as the steady population growth witnessed in recent years has flattened out, and so has the energy demand, he explained.

Hall said one of the advantages of wind generation is the ability to scale up the size of the farm as demand grows, so that now all the turbines that can be placed at Tehcho or Mount Sumanik have to be installed at the same time.

To be competitive – and most likely to receive permission from the Yukon Utilities Board to proceed with wind generation as an alternative – the cost would have to be 18 cents a kilowatt hour or lower, he acknowledged.

Public records show the cost of hydro generation is somewhere below 10 cents a kilowatt hour, while diesel generation is in the neighbourhood of 30 cents per kilowatt hour.

The cost of generation with the new natural gas generators, however, is 18 cents per kilowatt hour.

Hall said in all likelihood, before the utilities board would approve a wind project, it would have to be no more than 18 cents a kilowatt hour.

Yukon Energy is looking to bring in the cost of power from Sumanik and Tehcho at somewhere between 15 and 17 cents, said the corporation’s president.

Meanwhile, Hall announced at the press conference they’ll be retiring the Bonus wind turbine on Haeckel Hill. It’s getting old and tired, and is just too difficult to find parts for, he said.

See more on Bonus turbine later this week.