Wind power potential under review
Ginoogaming First Nation is making plans to become the latest Northwestern Ontario aboriginal community to make money from its windy shores.
Under a partnership with Montreal-based Geilectric Inc., the band is proposing to build five turbines overlooking Long Lake, three kilometres north of the reserve.
Wind turbines generally produce up to two megawatts of electricity each.
“The project is a glorious opportunity for us to secure stable revenue,” Ginoogaming Chief Celia Echum said in a news release. “This will be a godsend to our depressed band coffers.”
So far, the band has installed a test tower on its powwow grounds. It‘s the first step in a $42,000 wind-monitoring program, said the release.
“After a full year, collected data will be analyzed and compared to the long-term data collected by Environment Canada,” said the release.
The band will use the data review to determine whether it makes economic sense to proceed to the next step in developing the project.
It would cost about $28 million to advance to the final stage, which includes erecting the turbines and plugging them into the provincial grid, said the release.
There are currently about 500 megawatts of wind-energy projects being explored or developed at various sites between Thunder Bay and Marathon.
The most advanced project, in terms of getting close to construction, is a proposed 100-megawatt wind farm about 30 km west of Marathon, being developed by Brookfield Power.
By Carl Clutchey
9 June 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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