The joint pilot wind farm project Site Nordique Experimental en EolienCORUS (SNEEC) consists of two 2.05 MW REpower MM92 wind turbines. The Wind Energy TechnoCentre is the developer and owner of the project.

Constructed in the town of Gaspé, near Rivière-au-Renard, the SNEEC project uses two special cold climate versions of the REpower MM92 wind turbine. These have been designed for the demanding conditions of the Canadian 60-Hertz network.

“Our cold climate test facility in Inner Mongolia has already allowed us to prove that our technology can be used reliably, even at extreme temperature fluctuations and temperatures as low as -40°C,” says Matthias Schubert, CTO of REpower.

“Nevertheless, it is important to thoroughly test the climatic conditions on site before we start to install the up to 477 REpower turbines for the Québec tender, which we recently won.“ The Canadian wind farm project is also to be used to provide training to REpower’s local service employees.

The humid climate (compared with China) is a particular challenge for the wind turbine technology: “We want to ensure that our turbines can prove their value, even in moist Canadian weather conditions with lots of ice and snow”, continues Schubert.