Just so people don't think I'm making up Manitoba's wind potential numbers. These are ultra-conservative numbers on-lake wind energy potential
using Global Wind Atlas at 150m height. Feel free to audit yourself. I believe GWA greatly understates their wind potential too.
Total: 24gw of wind potential. Conservatively.
Most people can't fathom that number, 24,000mw. That's ~4x more than our entire current hydro capacity of ~6,500mw. Just
one of those wind farms would rank 2nd largest in the
world, of currently operating farms. These are BIG numbers.
MB has a uniqueness with our large shallow lakes. Lake MB is ultra-shallow at only like 10-20ft deep. Lake Winnipegosis is also only 20-30ft deep. And lower Lake Winnipeg is only 30-40ft deep. Shallow water allows for easier construction which means cheaper. Deepwater construction is different and much more expensive. Also, transporting large turbine blades is easier on big open water vs land: no closing roads, no moving powerlines, less nimby's, no agricultural land losses, and again, no land acquisition or royalty deals like onland wind. It's a wide open canvas.
Very few places have the shallow-lake advantage that MB does. It makes us fast and cheap. And again, already located on a splitable Bi-Pole 3. And right beside Grand Rapids dam, convertible into 2000-5000mw of pumped hydro storage for balancing.