Wind farm project still in the works
A project that could temporarily create up to 200 construction jobs next year near Marathon is still in the wind, but could be delayed slightly due to a lingering tight lending market.
“Like all projects of this type, we are being affected by the (global) credit crunch,” Pic River First Nation economic development officer Byron LeClair said Monday.
“But we remain hopeful that we‘ll still be able to start construction (in 2010),” added LeClair.
Pic River has become a minority partner with Ottawa-area energy company Brookfield Power Fund to build a 100-megawatt wind farm in a remote area about 25 kilometres west of Marathon.
The project, whose cost was originally estimated at $250 million, calls for 66 turbines overlooking Neys Provincial Park, each pumping 1.5 megawatts of electricity into the provincial grid.
LeClair said Monday that the band and Brookfield continue to work on firming up the project‘s financing.
The wind farm wasn‘t expected to threaten the environment, but last summer the Ministry of Natural Resources requested a more detailed study into the potential impact on caribou and peregrine falcons believed to be in the vicinity of the park.
Once the wind farm is in production, it‘s expected to require 10 permanent service technicians to maintain it.
The construction jobs will likely last for more than a year.
Brookfield Power operates the existing 189-megawatt Prince Wind project near Sault Ste. Marie. It is to start building a 50-megawatt wind farm next year near Windsor.
CARL CLUTCHEY
6 October 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
Some possibly related stories:
The copyright of this article is owned by the author or publisher indicated. Its availability here constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law as well as in similar "fair dealing" exceptions of the copyright laws of other nations, as part of National Wind Watch's effort to advance understanding of the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development. For more information, click here.
