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All Canada British Columbia North Vancouver The Eye of the Wind

The Eye of the Wind

The mountaintop wind turbine boasts a viewing deck — and a fair share of controversy.

North Vancouver, British Columbia

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Sam
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The Eye of the Wind   Craig Paterson on Flickr
The Eye of the Wind   Craig Paterson on Flickr
The Eye of the Wind   Venture Vancouver on Flickr
View from the bottom   Janayna Velozo on Flickr
View from the top, with rotor   CK Golf Solutions on Flickr
Under construction   SilentObserver on Flickr
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About

When you build North America's first extreme high altitude wind turbine, and the world's first wind turbine with an elevator and viewing deck, you can expect to encounter a few hurdles along the way.

Finished in February 2010 just before of the opening of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, The Eye of the Wind sits atop Grouse Mountain, just north of Vancouver. Weighing more than 250 tons and standing 65 meters tall, the turbine is easily visible throughout the surrounding area. Of course, building something that large and technologically sophisticated on top of a mountain involved some unique challenges. In particular, getting all the necessary machinery and structural components to the constrained building site required a bit of extra work, such as lengthening and widening mountain roads, assembling the 360-degree glass-enclosed viewing deck onsite, and flying the turbine rotors in by helicopter.

After construction was complete, the 1.5 megawatt turbine could not be connected to the power grid until it was outfitted with various pieces of safety equipment (such as electrical output monitors and emergency shutdown devices) required by the local power utility. Thus, the Eye of the Wind did not start actually supplying power until September 22, 2010.

Even after that, though, the project was not without it skeptics. Some questioned whether the turbine could reliably satisfy 25% of the power needs of Grouse Mountain Resort, as had been promised. The ski resort itself conducted an environmental study that suggested the turbine might have a negative impact on local bat and migrating bird populations (including the interesting metric of "mean bat-deaths per-turbine," which in North America ranges considerably "from 0.1 to 69.6 per year"). Some local residents simply thought the turbine spoiled the view.

On the other hand, the Eye of the Wind continues to be a green energy icon in British Columbia, representing not only Vancouver's first large-scale wind energy project, but also the province's commitment to achieving zero-emission electricity self-sustainability by 2016.

Related Tags

Windmills Mountains Engineering Electricity

Community Contributors

Added By

SamM

Edited By

derukanjiru, RHyzer

  • derukanjiru
  • RHyzer

Published

December 8, 2015

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Sources
  • http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=f9058893-85ac-4586-b64d-83b528162687
  • http://journalofcommerce.com/Home/News/2010/9/Grouse-Mountain-Resorts-Eye-of-the-Wind-begins-producing-power-JOC040735W/
  • http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/grouse-mountain-wind-turbine-hooked-up-1.921823
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20110713121218/http://www.journalofcommerce.com/article/id36416
  • http://blogs.ubc.ca/jamiesaunders/2010/10/04/grouse-mountains-very-visible-wind-turbine/
  • http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=64bcd023-4eba-4012-85a7-28564ee984e5
  • http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-energy-plan-pushes-conservation-new-technology-1.640459
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grouse_Mountain#The_Eye_of_the_Wind
The Eye of the Wind
6400 Nancy Greene Way
North Vancouver, British Columbia, V7R 4K9
Canada
49.372289, -123.099487
Visit Website
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Nearby Places

Capilano Suspension Bridge

North Vancouver, British Columbia

miles away

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Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of North Vancouver

North Vancouver

British Columbia

Places 2

Nearby Places

Capilano Suspension Bridge

North Vancouver, British Columbia

miles away

Mount Strachan Crash Site and Memorial

West Vancouver, British Columbia

miles away

Two Spirits Carving

Vancouver, British Columbia

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of North Vancouver

North Vancouver

British Columbia

Places 2

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