By IAN ROSS
Terry Wojick fully expects his phone will start ringing off the hook soon.
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Terry Wojick, owner of Northern Wind Power in North Bay, predicts a plethora of opportunities will be available to firms specializing in cleaner sources of power. |
With the provincial Liberals anxious to make good on their promise to abolish coal-fired plants in Ontario by 2007, the cattle call to search for cleaner sources of power such as wind has begun.
"In Ontario, I predict it's going to boom in the next one to two years," says Wojick, 35, founder of Northern Wind Power, a one-year-old North Bay wind consultant service.
A graduate of Ottawa's Algonquin College mechanical engineering program, Wojick erects 50- to 60-metre tilt-up wind assessment towers fitted with sensors to gather wind data for clients to determine the feasibility of a given area for large wind turbines.
Wojick, who employs three part-timers from his home-based business, has been dabbling in wind energy since he developed a back-yard wind turbine as part of his third-year project.
Over the years, the former forest firefighter and diamond drill salesman has supplemented his knowledge on green energy with courses from the Atlantic Wind Test Site in Prince Edward Island and the Kortright Centre in Toronto.
Currently, the Wasauksing First Nation, south of Parry Sound, is one of his clients considering erecting a three-megawatt tower proposal.
The wind speed and direction are automatically recorded and relayed by cell phone and the Internet every day at 3 p.m. to Wojick's computer in North Bay where the data is compiled on a special software program and assembled into a format detailing a year's worth of wind data.
His long-term goal is to eventually develop wind farms.
"Right now I have to know my limitations by getting into the industry on a basic step-by-step format and wind feasbility is a way to go."
The province's Request for Proposals issued in January has really stirred his hopes because of the potential 300 megawatts worth of green-energy projects on the horizon.
Wojick expects a recent government-issued Request for Proposals (RFPs) has contributed to calls from one potential client in Port Perry, Ont. in early February, and possibly another from Parry Sound.
The government is selecting a technical advisor to draft two RFP's for new electricity capacity and to oversee the process, expected to begin in February.
Wojick says the market outlook looks promising.
"This technology is working all over the world. Germany and Denmark are leading the way, with the U.S. and Spain right behind and both have the same kind of social and geographic background with coastlines, wooded and hilly areas. It works in these countries and it's going to work in Canada.
"Alberta and Quebec are getting into it in a big way. Alberta is up to 170 megawatts and Quebec is at 110 megawatts."
Wojick, who has talked with North Bay Hydro and another Northern Ontario wind development company on a partnership deal, is contemplating working on a local renewable energy proposal for later this year in the North Bay area. He has scouted four or five sites in the North Bay, Temagami, Powassan and Mattawa areas in the past year and a half.
"There are a couple of sites that are very promising and I would like to develop a site in one of those areas."
